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This is one of the reasons that pretty much all academic economists, regardless of political affiliation, agree that rent control is bad policy. The economical

by em500 2y ago

This is one of the reasons that pretty much all academic economists, regardless of political affiliation, agree that rent control is bad policy. The economically superior way to help locals of lower means is through income transfers (because it fucks up the market way less), but the politically superior way is via price controls (because you hide the tax-transfer redistribution and can pretend that you're just sticking it to fat-cat landlords/corporations/investors).

Cumpiler69 2y ago
Exactly. The only solution to affordable housing is to build more. And if you run out of space to build more because the city is full and don't want to ruin the character with skyscrapers, then you need to invest in infrastructure and facilities in the smaller cities that are not yet full and attract employers and workers there. Artificially capping prices on life necessities such as housing is never a sustainable solution.
rightbyte 2y ago
You could argue that from the point of view of the county's social democrat and socialist city council, that the rent control have worked as intended, in that the locals where not displaced to the same extent that a rent boom would result in. I think they argue that Northvolt could have funded enough housing if they wanted. But they seemed to mainly have housed workers in barracks. I think 1000-2000 something lived in barracks.
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  >You could argue that from the point of view of the county's social democrat and socialist city council, that the rent control have worked as intended, in that the locals where not displaced to the same extent that a rent boom would result in. Sure, this aids the locals on the short term and is politically popular, but I fear this kind of local protectionism and NIMBYism will further nerf the EU economically on the long term on the global stage (EU economy is now half the size of the US one, when 20 years ago we were on par). I'm thinking on SF and the Bay Area. The tech boom there caused a lot of gentrification and displacement which was bad for some of the locals, but the tech industry there was still a massive net benefit to the US economy in the grand scheme of things. So I don't think rent control and price brakes for the locals is the right solution. IMHO you should let the free market run its course and have government programs in place to assist people who can't keep up economically so they can realocate to more affordable areas and invest in those areas with infrastructure to make them desirable to live and attract future jobs.

by em500 2y ago

Cumpiler69 2y ago

Exactly. The only solution to affordable housing is to build more. And if you run out of space to build more because the city is full and don't want to ruin the character with skyscrapers, then you need to invest in infrastructure and facilities in the smaller cities that are not yet full and attract employers and workers there. Artificially capping prices on life necessities such as housing is never a sustainable solution.

rightbyte 2y ago

You could argue that from the point of view of the county's social democrat and socialist city council, that the rent control have worked as intended, in that the locals where not displaced to the same extent that a rent boom would result in. I think they argue that Northvolt could have funded enough housing if they wanted. But they seemed to mainly have housed workers in barracks. I think 1000-2000 something lived in barracks.

Cumpiler69 2y ago
>You could argue that from the point of view of the county's social democrat and socialist city council, that the rent control have worked as intended, in that the locals where not displaced to the same extent that a rent boom would result in. Sure, this aids the locals on the short term and is politically popular, but I fear this kind of local protectionism and NIMBYism will further nerf the EU economically on the long term on the global stage (EU economy is now half the size of the US one, when 20 years ago we were on par). I'm thinking on SF and the Bay Area. The tech boom there caused a lot of gentrification and displacement which was bad for some of the locals, but the tech industry there was still a massive net benefit to the US economy in the grand scheme of things. So I don't think rent control and price brakes for the locals is the right solution. IMHO you should let the free market run its course and have government programs in place to assist people who can't keep up economically so they can realocate to more affordable areas and invest in those areas with infrastructure to make them desirable to live and attract future jobs.