> What if something crazy happens to the economy, say the dollar gets devalued, and all you have is rental property for income? In San Francisco rent control i

> What if something crazy happens to the economy, say the dollar gets devalued, and all you have is rental property for income? In San Francisco rent control is indexed to inflation. If the dollar is devalued, inflation increases, and you get to increase your rent more. The same is true for Oregon's new law, which permits 7% increases in addition to inflation. > You're forgetting another option: deregulate and let the market compete. Rent control is about providing housing security and controlling volatility. Over the long-term unfettered markets may produce optimal supply, but in the short-term people can easily be pushed onto the street. As Keynes said, "economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again". (The more famous bit is, "in the long term we're all dead.")