Rent Controls Always Have the Same Result

Mayor Quimby: Are these morons getting dumber or just louder?

Aide: Dumber sir, they won't give up the bear patrol, but they won't pay taxes for it either. Ducking this issue calls for real leadership.

Having a group of economists come to a consensus is not easy. On the issue of rent controls however, there is near universal opinion that they are a bad thing. Besides the people who live in the buildings and NY Times Op-Ed writers its hard to find anyone who thinks they are beneficial.

So it is suprising that the Dutch would rather living in cockroach and rat infested shipping containers then get rid of the horriffic rent control laws in their country.

And these people are supposed to have such a great standard of living? Perhaps its the beatiful scenery of hookers and passed out heroin addicts on the way to the docks to live in a rodent infested box.

``There is a big shortage of housing, and at the same time a resistance to rent liberalization.''

The Dutch don't want to hear about more delays, as waiting lists lengthen and people flood into the city's three container towns.
...
Amsterdam's geography is reinforced by a 1901 law that caps how much landlords can charge. More than 70 percent of leased apartments are rent-controlled and command an average price of about 300 euros a month, or half the rent for those on the open market. Waits to get into the rent protection system can last as long as 26 years as people stay put.