If the first rule of capitalism is “commodify it,” the second is now: “Put it on a platform.” Contemporary technologies offer speed, reach, and network effects that even the most prolific robber barons of earlier ages would marvel at. Add to the mix a regulatory environment that is as permissive as it is corrosive, and you’ve got yourself a dystopia where everything is for sale and you can buy it online.

Today you can purchase a fraction of a rental property through the platform Arrived. The venture, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among others, sells investors on the idea of easy returns, inviting would-be buyers to “collect passive income without tenant hassle.”

That the tenant is cast as an inherent “hassle” ought to be the first alarm set off. For those buying into Arrived, the abstract, passive source of income is a mere “investment,” but that speculation represents someone’s home — a place in which individuals and families will live and without which they will struggle to survive. One doesn’t have to think long or hard to know why removing any human connection between landlord and tenant might exacerbate an already fraught, asymmetrical, and exploitative relationship.