4 ms·

I'm pretty sure the ordinances against housing construction in SF have very little to do with socialism or the USSR...

• w1ntermute 13y ago
  The zoning laws are good old NIMBYism. But the rent control? That's good ol' socialism.
  • wutbrodo 13y ago
    Oh for god's sake, just because you don't understand what the word means doesn't mean you can use socialism for any government action in the economy. Rent control isn't stupid because it's redistributive or whatever you think "socialist" means, it's stupid because it arbitrarily redistributes from long-standing tenants (rich, middle-class or poor) to those who move more often (rich, middle-class, or poor), while introducing a massive amount of uncertainty and overhead for landlords and reducing the quality and quantity of housing stock. A little understanding of economics goes a long way; the fact that rent control is distorting the price mechanism per se is not the reason that it's retarded (by that logic, Pigovian taxes would be just as disastrous as rent control).