<< Ah, the greedy landlord argument. Rent control, perhaps? I am in the supply and
demand camp. I do not care for, "From each according to his means -- to each
according to his needs (desires).">>
Some kinds of rent control seem to be necessary in cities like San Francisco, where the demand hugely outreaches the supply. If there are no controls at all, then you lose all the poor and most of the working middle class like teachers and policemen who serve the needs of the city. Do you want a functional community or an enclave of the very rich only? Who will actually sweep the streets and teach your children? I think these are real questions that communities like San Francisco need to think about. Rent control here is pretty fair, incidentally. Landlords can raise the rent as much as the market will bear on units that become vacant, but cannot evict tenants willy nilly to do that unless they violate their rental agreements, or to move in a close family member. Landlords buying in San Francisco know that there is limited rent control, so they are making informed decisions when they buy. Landlords who owned their properties before the institution of rent control bought them so long ago that their mortgages are tiny or nonexistent, and the value of their properties has increased probably twenty fold, at least, so they are profiting greatly.
<<BTW, if you're against free world trade, the first thing that has to go is the internet. If you think mom and pop took it in the shorts from Starbucks, they're going to get positively reamed by dot com. Are YOU going to take the pledge to never buy on-line, Christine?>>
I'm not sure I agree with your statement, Michael. A lot of dot.com entrepreneurs were just computer savvy small businessmen who were very clever, and thought of something novel. Certainly there is nothing wrong with that. An example would be the founder of ebay, who was simply trying to create a place where his girlfriend could trade Pez. A lot of these people took giant risks to start their businesses, and deserve to be rewarded for their ingenuity. |
