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> landlords eventually capture all income gains in the form of rent increases This is exactly the strongest argument against universal basic income, that nobod

> landlords eventually capture all income gains in the form of rent increases This is exactly the strongest argument against universal basic income, that nobody wants to address.

erik_seaberg 7y ago
We don't have a nationwide housing shortage. UBI might relieve pressure by letting some people relocate away from the local shortages in strong labor markets.
- trickstra 7y ago
  Even when people have the meas to relocate, they are reluctant to do it. If the housing market was fluid enough that we could consider nationwide factors, localized high-rent regions like Seattle, Vancouver or Silicon Valley wouldn't even occur in the first place. So with or without nationwide housing shortage, any income increase will still be captured by local landlords.
inflatableDodo 7y ago
It isn't so much an argument against it, but rather an acknowledgement that it is problematic if not coupled to very strong social housing provision.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Rent controlling part of the market is so thoroughly considered a failure that it's in economics textbooks. Rent controlling all of the market is a failure to the point where it's in history textbooks. The rent problem is a de-facto blocker for UBI
  - alexgmcm 7y ago
    Social housing provision means the government building/renovating loads of houses though - not rent control.
  - inflatableDodo 7y ago
    Lots of things are in economics textbooks that are not neccesarily worth the paper they are written on. Here's an article on the German method of rent control in the Financial Times, 'German rent control works for both landlords and tenants' - https://www.ft.com/content/efe1f74c-3c1d-11e9-9988-28303f70fcff https://www.ft.com/content/efe1f74c-3c1d-11e9-9988-28303f70f... Also, social housing is not the same as rent control. Around 20% of the housing stock in Denmark is social housing - https://urbanlifecopenhagen.weebly.com/housing.html https://urbanlifecopenhagen.weebly.com/housing.html

> landlords eventually capture all income gains in the form of rent increases This is exactly the strongest argument against universal basic income, that nobody wants to address.

erik_seaberg 7y ago

We don't have a nationwide housing shortage. UBI might relieve pressure by letting some people relocate away from the local shortages in strong labor markets.

trickstra 7y ago
Even when people have the meas to relocate, they are reluctant to do it. If the housing market was fluid enough that we could consider nationwide factors, localized high-rent regions like Seattle, Vancouver or Silicon Valley wouldn't even occur in the first place. So with or without nationwide housing shortage, any income increase will still be captured by local landlords.

inflatableDodo 7y ago

It isn't so much an argument against it, but rather an acknowledgement that it is problematic if not coupled to very strong social housing provision.

dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Rent controlling part of the market is so thoroughly considered a failure that it's in economics textbooks. Rent controlling all of the market is a failure to the point where it's in history textbooks. The rent problem is a de-facto blocker for UBI
- alexgmcm 7y ago
  Social housing provision means the government building/renovating loads of houses though - not rent control.
- inflatableDodo 7y ago
  Lots of things are in economics textbooks that are not neccesarily worth the paper they are written on. Here's an article on the German method of rent control in the Financial Times, 'German rent control works for both landlords and tenants' - https://www.ft.com/content/efe1f74c-3c1d-11e9-9988-28303f70fcff https://www.ft.com/content/efe1f74c-3c1d-11e9-9988-28303f70f... Also, social housing is not the same as rent control. Around 20% of the housing stock in Denmark is social housing - https://urbanlifecopenhagen.weebly.com/housing.html https://urbanlifecopenhagen.weebly.com/housing.html