By: Mark Glennon*
As I start to write this, I’ve gone back twice to the news stories twice to make sure I read them right.
Yup, J.B. Pritzker, candidate for Illinois governor, said it’s time to let cities like Chicago tell landlords how much to charge for rent. You’d have expected that from the far left’s Dan Biss, who also wants to allow rent controls, but Pritzker, too? It’s the dumbest policy proposal yet from a major candidate in this election.
Their positions are reported in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Reader.
Hmm, who would be a good person to quote on this topic? Since believers in rent control tend to be the types who don’t want to hear what they don’t like, let’s go with somebody who said just that about rent control, and who has credibility with those types. That would be Paul Krugman, among the left’s favorite economists.
Here is some of how Krugman made the case against rent controls in the New York Times:
The analysis of rent control is among the best-understood issues in all of economics, and — among economists, anyway — one of the least controversial. In 1992 a poll of the American Economic Association found 93 percent of its members agreeing that ”a ceiling on rents reduces the quality and quantity of housing.” Almost every freshman-level textbook contains a case study on rent control, using its known adverse side effects to illustrate the principles of supply and demand. [Emphasis added.]
Predictable consequences of rent control, Krugman says, also include sky-high rents on uncontrolled apartments, bitter relations between tenants and landlords and an arms race between ever-more ingenious strategies to force tenants out.
And here’s my favorite part: “People literally don’t want to know,” wrote Krugman. “A few months ago, when a San Francisco official proposed a study of the city’s housing crisis, there was a firestorm of opposition from tenant-advocacy groups. They argued that even to study the situation was a step on the road to ending rent control — and they may well have been right, because studying the issue might lead to a recognition of the obvious.”
Pritzker probably figures he can count on just that — support from people who just don’t want to hear what’s obvious.
But look on the bright side. Maybe this will spark some discussion of those freshman-level econ topics Krugman mentioned, something most Illinois voters never trouble with.
Let’s start those lessons with a few questions for Pritzker. J.B. why stop with rents? How about price controls on how much your family’s hotels charge? Heck, if it works for rents, why not food and everything else?
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints. Opinions expressed are his own.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
So for the record, JB:
– Cities can dictate rent
– Cities cannot dictate prevailing wage
– State can amend the constitution to allow for a progressive income tax
– State cannot amend the constitution to remove pension clause
The ONLY WAY for Illinois to survive, is to have congress to pass legislation that allows States to file Federal Bankruptcy. Reforming those ridiculous and obscene pensions should be priority number 1!
It is the definition of irony when a leftist billionaire (with inherited wealth through no talent or hard work of his own) begins to bray about stealing the property and economic rights of the rest of us. To me, this is the same as Al Gore flying his private jets to a conference to tell the rest of us that we must reduce our “carbon footprint.” These people are professional virtue signalers who cynically pander to the economically and civically ignorant members of our society with zero regard for empirical evidence or the spirit of our freedom. Mark, you hit… Read more »
Interesting comment… “Far right Republicans who can’t see anything beyond abortion will also abandon Rauner”.
Rauner left me I didn’t leave him. By handing out free abortions, sanctuary state. We already know a governor cannot solve the problem, only bankruptcy can. So we may as well stay home, Raumer is not a differentiator he’s weak even In national interviews. There is no substance to Rainer. Ives deserves the nomination.
So don’t stay home, vote for Ives and urge your neighbors!
And the logic to stay in Illinois is ??