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Good. People think rent control helps poor and middle class people find a good place to live, and punishes those evil, evil landlords. What it does in practice

Good. People think rent control helps poor and middle class people find a good place to live, and punishes those evil, evil landlords. What it does in practice is discourage building new housing, and encourages evil, evil landlords to convert existing housing into condos they can sell. It drives people out of the city.

650REDHAIR 3y ago
Rent control is the only thing that keeps dozens of my friends in San Francisco. Ages 22-75.
- bombcar 3y ago
  Nobody denies that some people benefit - the question is does society as a whole benefit?
  - beej71 3y ago
    Enough to get the votes, apparently!
- kjksf 3y ago
  Good for them but how is it just and fair? Why your friends get cheap rents and not my friends who would also like to have cheap apartments in SF? How is it fair that everyone who doesn't have rent controlled apartment is paying more for their apt than they otherwise would, as dictated by supply-demand 101. How is it fair that a private entity (a landlord) subsidies another private entity (renter) under threat of government violence? In any other business context (e.g. selling cars) such rules would be beyond the pale. Can you imagine the government telling Ford that if a buyer meets some criteria Ford has to sell them F-150 at 40% discount? It sounds absurd but this is what rent control is.
  - BizarroLand 3y ago
    Yeah, I can, because the flip side of this is that they're already marking up the ford 250%, so when they take the 40% of the new total off they're just getting their normal margins and not their vastly inflated ones that they get to pawn off on others in the name of "ford price control", and everyone else pays those higher prices thinking, "Well, if that guy can afford it, I must be able to also..."
tharmas 3y ago
Rent control is a two-edged sword. Does some good, does some bad. Not much is said, but globalism, facilitated by the internet, is a factor driving up house prices. In Vancouver, Canada, they built a lot of condos but the majority of the stock was bought up by overseas residents. In many cases the condos weren't even advertised for sale in Vancouver for locals to buy. The internet has made it easier for investors to obtain information about potential "investment" properties. If you are going to build more homes you need to make them available to locals only. I'm sure present (globalist) trade treaties forbid such things. Another possible solution is for the government to build rent to own housing at an affordable price. That's effectively public housing which has its problems too. Also, I suspect there are trade treaties that prevent that from happening too.
wwweston 3y ago
In a lot of cases rent control doesn’t even apply to new housing, and even where it might it’s effectively a declaration that profit is allowed on volume more than margins, so it’s pro-density. You can ruin that with zoning, of course. But rent control isn’t the anti-supply force in that scenario.

650REDHAIR 3y ago

Rent control is the only thing that keeps dozens of my friends in San Francisco. Ages 22-75.

bombcar 3y ago
Nobody denies that some people benefit - the question is does society as a whole benefit?
- beej71 3y ago
  Enough to get the votes, apparently!
kjksf 3y ago
Good for them but how is it just and fair? Why your friends get cheap rents and not my friends who would also like to have cheap apartments in SF? How is it fair that everyone who doesn't have rent controlled apartment is paying more for their apt than they otherwise would, as dictated by supply-demand 101. How is it fair that a private entity (a landlord) subsidies another private entity (renter) under threat of government violence? In any other business context (e.g. selling cars) such rules would be beyond the pale. Can you imagine the government telling Ford that if a buyer meets some criteria Ford has to sell them F-150 at 40% discount? It sounds absurd but this is what rent control is.
- BizarroLand 3y ago
  Yeah, I can, because the flip side of this is that they're already marking up the ford 250%, so when they take the 40% of the new total off they're just getting their normal margins and not their vastly inflated ones that they get to pawn off on others in the name of "ford price control", and everyone else pays those higher prices thinking, "Well, if that guy can afford it, I must be able to also..."

tharmas 3y ago

Rent control is a two-edged sword. Does some good, does some bad. Not much is said, but globalism, facilitated by the internet, is a factor driving up house prices. In Vancouver, Canada, they built a lot of condos but the majority of the stock was bought up by overseas residents. In many cases the condos weren't even advertised for sale in Vancouver for locals to buy. The internet has made it easier for investors to obtain information about potential "investment" properties. If you are going to build more homes you need to make them available to locals only. I'm sure present (globalist) trade treaties forbid such things. Another possible solution is for the government to build rent to own housing at an affordable price. That's effectively public housing which has its problems too. Also, I suspect there are trade treaties that prevent that from happening too.

wwweston 3y ago

In a lot of cases rent control doesn’t even apply to new housing, and even where it might it’s effectively a declaration that profit is allowed on volume more than margins, so it’s pro-density. You can ruin that with zoning, of course. But rent control isn’t the anti-supply force in that scenario.