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Happy Labour Day to people who are not landlords. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, there is price fixing. You know how that works? By artificially restricting competition through regulatory capture, aka restrictive zoning.

All the evidence point to zoning reform and actually legally allowing things like missing middle housing to be effective ways to control rising rents. If you clicked on one of the above links, you'd see this table:

Also recall from the same report:

In all four places studied, the vast majority of new housing has been market rate, meaning rents are based on factors such as demand and prevailing construction and operating costs.

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2023/04/17/more-flexible-zoning-helps-contain-rising-rents

You're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.

I have found that the people calling for just changing the zoning laws usually have a bulldozer right behind their shoulder waiting to be sent.

Well you didn't even read the second half of my comment where I also called for taxing land.

PS Trickle down housing doesn’t work. The end.

Ah, yes, the old trick of calling everything you don't like "trickle down". Should the solution to the toilet paper shortages of 2020 have been to lock down new supply and wage a moral crusade against toilet paper scalpers? Or just actually get supply back to normal to avoid the whole situation in the first place?

[+] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmmm, market rate is determined by price fixing so the people living there have to make more so they can live there and then the rent is price fixed up, and so on, and so on, and so on…

Look at the chart I showed in my last comment again. Clearly landlords in Minneapolis aren't raising rents in perpetuity. Gee, could that be because they abolished single-family zoning in 2018, and they're already seeing a stabilized rental market despite being a large, desirable, high-QoL city? So much for your assertion that it "takes 30 years to see results".

Raising taxes

My goal isn't raising taxes. My goal is to replace bad taxes like sales, income, and property taxes with good taxes like land value taxes, carbon taxes (and other taxes on negative externalities), and severance taxes.

all of your points are meaningless to me because you’re not operating in good faith.

My guy, who do you think I am? Do you think all YIMBYs are actually just a secret cabal of developers rubbing our greedy little YIMBY hands together to demolish your historic gas stations and parking lots?

I'm a fresh-out-of-grad-school engineer who rents an apartment in a major city. I've seen the power of YIMBYism first hand, as I was able to negotiate down the landlord on rent before signing the lease, because there was a credible threat of me leaving and finding somewhere else cheaper. The reason why? My city, Montreal, is the most affordable major city in North America, with some of the lowest barriers to density, and extensive neighborhoods of "missing middle" housing (e.g., townhouses, plexes, low- and mid-rise apartments). All despite being a very desirable, very high-QoL city. Turns out having options gives you actual negotiating power against your landlord.

If you have all the fear of homelessness and your landlord has no fear of vacancy, then your landlord has all the power over you. If you have plenty of options, and your landlord has a credible fear of vacancy, you will have actual negotiating power. NIMBY policies only serve to empower landlords and weaken tenants.

Unlike you, I want to actually grant tenants (myself included) more negotiating power against their landlords by granting them more choices in housing.

Further, do you legitimately believe the current crony capitalist system has produced enough housing in America and Canada? Or is it possible vested interests have captured local governments to artificially limit supply and thus limit competition, and that NIMBYs like you are the pawns to protect their speculative investments?