Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
From: nrh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Rent control - (nf)
Message-ID: <1400@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-May-84 00:25:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.1400
Posted: Tue May 15 00:25:46 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 16-May-84 03:46:59 EDT
Lines: 63

#N:inmet:3900117:000:2750
inmet!nrh    May 13 21:16:00 1984

I know this is net.flame, but I can't resist:  Please don't argue
by anecdote.

For example, the person who argues that he had good experiences in 
rent controlled apartments, and bad experiences in non-rent controlled
apartments has "proved" only that rent control doesn't rule out
good experiences and that lack of rent control does not make bad
experiences impossible.

We all knew this.

The person who argues that his mother rents out a house and is for rent
control merely proves that it is not impossible for individual landlords
to be in favor of rent control.

We all knew this.

Neither of these facts is worth citing in favor of stronger assertions:
that "rent control does not lower the quality of buildings" or that
"landlords do not maintain uncontrolled buildings any better than
controlled buildings".

Beware also of misleading use of statistics, or non-statistics.

For example, the person who argues that evictions are up 400%  after
a rent-control ordinance failed has overlooked the obvious: a landlord
would be a sap to try and evict people when the rent he is trying to 
get from them might suddenly be illegally high.  Why bother, if he won't
be able to get any more rent from the new tenants?

Another person who argued that there is housing going up in Cambridge, 
and invited us to "call the City Manager". Evidently doesn't think
enough of the rest of us to say what he found out when HE did it.
On the other hand, a common trick in rent control laws is to 
limit rent control to units in use before the legislation takes
effect.   This means that given high-enough potential return, 
people will still build new apartments, if they're willing to run
the risk that THOSE units will eventually be controlled.  
So if you DO call the city manager, please find out whether the
new units are going to be under rent-control or not.

I'll close here with a different sort of anecdote.  Some 
other Libertarians were telling me about the history of the
rent-control ordinances in Cambridge.  The story goes
that the idea of rent-control was controversial when it first
came up, so the city council (or whatever they're called)
commissioned a study by some think tank.  The head of the
study was known to be pro-rent-control.

The resulting study turned out to be absolutely AGAINST rent control,
as was the person heading the study.  It seems that after marshalling
the evidence, he'd concluded that rent control was a bad idea.

I'm told the city council tried to surpress the study, and that 
some libertarian-types had to pry it out of them.   


By the way, lest Boston get a bad name, there's no current rent control
here (although I suppose some older units might be rent controlled).
Cambridge does have rent control.