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I know too many software engineers with $200k salaries living in $2000/Mo rent controlled apartments in San Francisco. They are the last people needing any help

by msoad 7y ago

I know too many software engineers with $200k salaries living in $2000/Mo rent controlled apartments in San Francisco. They are the last people needing any help with their rent. Sometimes they have extra room they Airbnb which reduces their rent even further

uoaei 7y ago
Yes, rent control doesn't magically solve the problem by itself. But it shores up the defenses of less-advantaged renters. Of course some opportunistic high earners will insert themselves into this system. There should be something in place alongside rent control to minimize that.
- zo1 7y ago
  I'm a free-market kind of person. But I think that the problem with politicians' / planners' tinkering here is that it's inherently gimped/broken. Tinkering and tweaking the rules/details of society only kinda works if you're able to do it a lot so you can constantly "respond" and stay ahead of the changes and responses in the market. Whether as byproducts of the regulations, or in opposition to them. The market and the people that form part of it will always respond, and modest tinkering will always fall short because (from my perspective) it seems downright impossible to make version 2.0 after implementing version 1.0 of the tweaks. At best, you get 1.1 or 1.2, and after that a perpetual 1.x.xxxxx set of patches that are only tiny changes in order to appease special interest groups. And the reason (I would posit) is that the rules/system of government we seem to have in place make this sort of stuff next to impossible. Whether it's from special interest groups, meddling activist judges, flip-flopping politicians, lobbying, partisan voting, corporate meddling, lack of real public buy-in and participation, lack of referendums, anything. It's gimped so we get the crappy part of the constant "tweaking" and "optimizing" by politicians, all while having to do PR for their changes/ideas and a public that is almost exactly divided on the issues.
  - rhinoceraptor 7y ago
    And it seems pretty obvious to me that the rules now are (as much as they claim be pro-social justice), are only in the interests of property owners. And it's not like rent control is the only way for there to be affordable housing. It's just a way that pretends to look out for lower income people, while actually benefiting entrenched property owners in a really perverse way.

by msoad 7y ago

uoaei 7y ago

Yes, rent control doesn't magically solve the problem by itself. But it shores up the defenses of less-advantaged renters. Of course some opportunistic high earners will insert themselves into this system. There should be something in place alongside rent control to minimize that.

zo1 7y ago
I'm a free-market kind of person. But I think that the problem with politicians' / planners' tinkering here is that it's inherently gimped/broken. Tinkering and tweaking the rules/details of society only kinda works if you're able to do it a lot so you can constantly "respond" and stay ahead of the changes and responses in the market. Whether as byproducts of the regulations, or in opposition to them. The market and the people that form part of it will always respond, and modest tinkering will always fall short because (from my perspective) it seems downright impossible to make version 2.0 after implementing version 1.0 of the tweaks. At best, you get 1.1 or 1.2, and after that a perpetual 1.x.xxxxx set of patches that are only tiny changes in order to appease special interest groups. And the reason (I would posit) is that the rules/system of government we seem to have in place make this sort of stuff next to impossible. Whether it's from special interest groups, meddling activist judges, flip-flopping politicians, lobbying, partisan voting, corporate meddling, lack of real public buy-in and participation, lack of referendums, anything. It's gimped so we get the crappy part of the constant "tweaking" and "optimizing" by politicians, all while having to do PR for their changes/ideas and a public that is almost exactly divided on the issues.
- rhinoceraptor 7y ago
  And it seems pretty obvious to me that the rules now are (as much as they claim be pro-social justice), are only in the interests of property owners. And it's not like rent control is the only way for there to be affordable housing. It's just a way that pretends to look out for lower income people, while actually benefiting entrenched property owners in a really perverse way.