4 ms·
Rent control is a scourge on our cities and people. It hurts everything around it: the people (both rich and poor), the city, the developers, sometimes even the
by mruts 8y ago
Rent control is a scourge on our cities and people. It hurts everything around it: the people (both rich and poor), the city, the developers, sometimes even the people who are living in the rent controlled apartment. I don't think you could find a single reputable economist who thinks it's anything except a terrible idea.
- seibelj 8y agoYes, but we get to stick it to the rich people!
- Kiro 8y agoWhat about segregation? In Sweden most people are in favor of rent control. They don't want the rich being the only ones who can afford living in nice areas and let the poor be lumped together in bad areas.
- mruts 8y agoThat’s a tautology. A nice area is nice because rich people live in it.
- Kiro 8y agoThe closer to the city center the more money you would need, creating segregation and eventually ghettos. Rent control prevents this.
- paulddraper 8y agoSo how do they choose who lives in the bad areas? Lottery?
- Kiro 8y agoHousing queues. You apply and the the longer queue time gets the apartment. Is that not a good solution?
- Frqy3 8y agoThis should be solved using public sector housing. Which you can think of as similar to rent control as discussed in the article, except the subsidy is made visible and direct through the tax payer funding, rather than through being obscured. This also gives better public control of who receives the subsidised housing, usually a combination of needs assessment to qualify and then a queue system. The important thing we have learned from the 70s/80s (different timing in different countries) is to spread the public housing throughout the community, rather than concentrate it into a single location. That is, rather than have a large apartment building that is purely public housing, have a requirement that a certain percentage of properties of every new development will be made available as government subsidised public housing.
- Kiro 8y agoSounds fair but is rent control really a subsidy? The state is not paying anything, while public sector housing would be an expense.