4 ms·
Thanks for that, I didn't know this term. However I disagree with the idea that two wrongs make a right. Forcing the suffering around like that just creates mor
by dgzl 7y ago
Thanks for that, I didn't know this term. However I disagree with the idea that two wrongs make a right. Forcing the suffering around like that just creates more problems than it's worth.
- jackvalentine 7y agoIn this case two wrongs may not make a right, but at least it shares some pain with the rent-seeking property owning class and may in time cause them to accept change. It's a bit fatalistic but if we're going down anyway, we're going down together!
- dgzl 7y agoI hate that mentality. It achieves nothing good in the long run.
- sgc 7y agoIf they are making less money, they certainly won't allow more construction to deflate prices even further. Rent is already below mortgage in California, so I am not sure what kind of deal people are looking for. As others have said here in various ways, it seems more like lashing out at someone because it sucks life is so expensive where you live rather than dealing with the root causes.
- jackvalentine 7y agoHow would you deal with the root causes?
- AnthonyMouse 7y agoImpose relaxed zoning rules at the state level instead of imposing rent control there.
- jackvalentine 7y agoI would completely agree with that, but for some reason it isn't as politically do-able as this rent control legislation was.
- AnthonyMouse 7y ago> I would completely agree with that, but for some reason it isn't as politically do-able as this rent control legislation was. The reason is that landlords know exactly what rent control does. Landlords know that the tenants with the strongest interest in local housing costs are the people who already live there and plan to continue to do so indefinitely. Rent control is a method of buying them off without actually solving the problem in general, so that overall rents and housing costs remain high but the subset of people most likely to be politically active in doing something to correct that gets a bribe to stop objecting while overall housing costs continue to rise faster than inflation. What it is, then, is not a step on the road to a real solution, it's a roadblock preventing that from happening by weakening opposition to the status quo by just enough that no actually effective reforms can be enacted.
- jackvalentine 7y agoSo how would you solve the root cause?
- AnthonyMouse 7y agoThe policy solution is known -- ease restrictions on increasing the housing supply. If you're asking how to get that passed, well, that's an education problem. You need people to understand why rent control is not a solution so that they are not willing to accept it over something that actually works.
- jackvalentine 7y agoWhat I’m getting at is that’s policy and doing are inextricably linked and frankly people have had enough of sneering technocrats telling them the optimal solution that they’re powerless to peruse. Rent control is a bad idea... but sometimes the only way to bring good ideas in to the realms of possibility is to do bad ideas first.