Here is a comment I left on David Henderson’s Econlog post “Misallocation Under Rent Control”:
“What critics of rent controls are missing is this: Even if rent control is a bad idea, the market left alone by itself will not provide cheap housing to people who have low or no incomes. Markets only serve people who have income levels that allow them to participate in the market.”
This is incorrect. If I may paraphrase Don Boudreaux’s general response on this at Cafe Hayek, there are no price ceilings on lots of goods, from food to clothing to automobiles, and yet the market provides these for all, both rich and poor. There is no reason to think housing is much different.
Besides, rent control doesn’t guarantee that there will be suddenly affordable housing everywhere. As both David and Don point out, the competition only becomes…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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