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That has a solution. Build (or permit) more housing where people want to live and the price will go down. Simple. Rent control destroys all the market incentiv
by Sabinus 3mo ago
That has a solution. Build (or permit) more housing where people want to live and the price will go down. Simple.
Rent control destroys all the market incentives that are the point of having housing be private. If you're going to do that you might as well have the government directly own and rent the housing stock itself.
- ceejayoz 3mo ago> Build (or permit) more housing where people want to live and the price will go down. Mamdani's working to do precisely that, including with this sort of red-tape cutting. https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/04/business/mamdani-housing-new-york-city https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/04/business/mamdani-housing-new-... "His strategy uses market-oriented policies — easing building regulations, loosening zoning restrictions and rescuing the city’s crumbling public housing stock through private financing — to advance his social democratic goals of 200,000 affordable homes over the next decade." He's just not letting it be an excuse to profiteer off existing tenants in existing housing.
- foco_tubi 3mo agoIf you abolish rent control with the current US housing stock, you make millions of people homeless. I’ve come around to how it has hurt the speed of development but it’s an entrenched policy at this point. You can’t get rid of it until there’s enough housing. The alternative as you allude to is massive public investment in subsidy, whether that’s public housing projects, rent vouchers, or UBI.
- Sabinus 3mo agoHow does abolishing rent control make millions homeless? The housing would still be there, just with richer people living in them? It would certainly increase commutes for the working class though
- foco_tubi 3mo agoThe housing would likely sit empty as richer people are a limited quantity market, and are not usually shopping for the typical quality of a rent-controlled or low-income unit. Meanwhile the working class folk you mention are sleeping in their cars in the city, because a 4 hour long commute one way from the exurbs is not feasible.