3 ms·

Rent control is easy to criticize if you use straw men. Not ever implementation of rent control is or needs to be so extreme as to cause these types of problems

Rent control is easy to criticize if you use straw men. Not ever implementation of rent control is or needs to be so extreme as to cause these types of problems. There exists a level of rent control that can prevent families form being rapidly evicted from their communities via rent increases and does not dramatically distort the housing market. Just because many implementations are terrible doesn't negate the concept.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
“Rent control” is like “Defund the police”: you can have the most reasoned, well-thought-out, evidence-based policy proposal, but as soon as it gets a label that’s accurate enough that advocates can’t muster the mental energy to enter into a detailed technical discussion with every Internet comment poster that misunderstands what is proposed - but so-loaded with connotations and political innuendo that the ideological other-half of the country parrots the misrepresentations because thinking less of the opposition makes them feel good. So let’s agree to avoid the buzzword. What’s a more accurate - yet succinct - phrase to describe housing market controls that protect the least fortunate of us from being priced out of their homes and communities without disrupting the significant market forces which should - ideally - be promoting new housing construction? (Also, ban unsustainable zoning regs, enact an unimproved land value tax, and only allow greenbelts in areas with full mixed-use developments without building height restrictions)
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  It's also like "defund the police" in that you have both carefully thought out policy changes and completely asinine extremist ideas co-mingling under the same label and the people peddling the latter use the former as cover when their BS is called out for what it is.

3 ms·

Rent control is easy to criticize if you use straw men. Not ever implementation of rent control is or needs to be so extreme as to cause these types of problems

by standardUser 5y ago

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
“Rent control” is like “Defund the police”: you can have the most reasoned, well-thought-out, evidence-based policy proposal, but as soon as it gets a label that’s accurate enough that advocates can’t muster the mental energy to enter into a detailed technical discussion with every Internet comment poster that misunderstands what is proposed - but so-loaded with connotations and political innuendo that the ideological other-half of the country parrots the misrepresentations because thinking less of the opposition makes them feel good. So let’s agree to avoid the buzzword. What’s a more accurate - yet succinct - phrase to describe housing market controls that protect the least fortunate of us from being priced out of their homes and communities without disrupting the significant market forces which should - ideally - be promoting new housing construction? (Also, ban unsustainable zoning regs, enact an unimproved land value tax, and only allow greenbelts in areas with full mixed-use developments without building height restrictions)
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  It's also like "defund the police" in that you have both carefully thought out policy changes and completely asinine extremist ideas co-mingling under the same label and the people peddling the latter use the former as cover when their BS is called out for what it is.