Parent made it sound like the government has a moral right to zoning laws. I would argue that zoning laws are more often abused than used properly.

The government does have a moral right to zoning laws.

We, as citizens, have ascribed them that right. And it is what protects me from having my neighbours run a brothel or smelting plant in their house.

That's not a "right", that's a power struggle. What protects the brothel owner from being kicked out of town?

By that definition so are long-term rentals, or even home buying and selling. A Colorado court has ruled that there's no substantive difference between a renter who rents for one month or one week.

subletting is legal, by your definition it would be a business and should be illegal.

Your definition is wrong.

Subletting is not short term, and is rightly considered to be largely governed by the same laws as those that apply to rentals since the uses are so similar.

I honestly do not understand the willful ignorance in this thread. Short term rentals is commerce. Everyone knows it's commerce. When you say you think it isn't (or you don't understand how it could be) you sound like you're denying the earth goes around the sun. This isn't even a particularly nuanced area of permitted use laws (zoning) or the appropriate role of government. You are all basically advocating for elimination of all zoning and/or pretending it doesn't exist as a totally normal type of regulation in the US (and all over the world).

Selling off my collection of stamps from my home or allowing my child to sell lemonade is also commerce, yet I am allowed to do it.

This is where the original poster went off the rails. Just because there's an exchange of money does not mean these laws do, or should, apply.

Of course they shut down lemonade stands. Especially if you tried to run a daily lemonade stand out of your front yard, staffed by people who don't live there.

And yes, authorities do shut down lemonade stands: https://www.google.com/search?q=authority+shut+down+lemonade...

I think it's silly, but there it is.

right, someone has done it somewhere. I knew that when I made the comment, it doesn't change the general applicability of the point.

They're legal because the government has not decided to make them illegal. If the government decides that your lemonade stand is a danger to public health, or that your stamp collection is a national patrimony and cannot leave the country, it will make new laws that enforce those decisions.

Or, they're illegal, but the law isn't enforced, so people feel they are legal.