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I want to hear everyone's thoughts about this. We have had minimum wage laws for decades now, and we've had plenty of debate about it and we know more or less where everyone stands. I want to talk about another price control, and that is rent. What if we passed a law stating that landlords could charge no more than 25% of a household's income as rent. That is, a family that makes $4000 per month could be charged no more than $1000 per month in rent.
The immediate reaction I hear is that this will just increase homelessness, but let's think this through. Is that really true?
For the rich the impact is negligible, at least on their primary residence. Now what about the poor? Well, they're already paying 50%+ of their income toward rent. Are we really expecting for all of them to be homeless? That's quite doubtful, just like minimum wage increase don't cause unemployment rates to skyrocket to 15%. On the margins there are effects, but they're never as large as detractors make them out to be. So landlords would take a hit, yes, but the poor would also have more money to spend, helping other industries to have a larger market.
So let's think this out and have a real debate on the issue. Or, are you totally oblivious and fine with the fact that massive numbers of Americans are being absolutely fleeced just to have a roof over their heads?
The immediate reaction I hear is that this will just increase homelessness, but let's think this through. Is that really true?
For the rich the impact is negligible, at least on their primary residence. Now what about the poor? Well, they're already paying 50%+ of their income toward rent. Are we really expecting for all of them to be homeless? That's quite doubtful, just like minimum wage increase don't cause unemployment rates to skyrocket to 15%. On the margins there are effects, but they're never as large as detractors make them out to be. So landlords would take a hit, yes, but the poor would also have more money to spend, helping other industries to have a larger market.
So let's think this out and have a real debate on the issue. Or, are you totally oblivious and fine with the fact that massive numbers of Americans are being absolutely fleeced just to have a roof over their heads?