Hello everyone and welcome back to the Real Economics Tough Talk podcast.

We are your egghead bean counting experts who always figure out the real truth, whether

or not the populace left lunatics, well-meaning as they are, like it in their fits of incompetence

and malice.

You know, I can't even blame them because in economics, a lot of times there's some really

counterintuitive findings that just aren't obvious on the surface.

You've got to dig a little deeper, look at the numbers and say, okay, you know, rent control.

Sure, on the surface of it, people who live in rent control departments have more stability, they're paying lower rents,

but if you dig a little bit deeper underneath that, what's really going on?

Yeah, unintended consequences. There's a lot. There's a lot of unintended consequences. The beauty of rent control, it's skin deep, you know? It's like the beautiful cheerleader of housing, but you get to know her and you find out, oh, she's actually quite mean to wait staff. That's a perfect analogy, yeah. You know, people would hang a photograph of rent control on their wall as part of a misogynistic

attitude.

So, you know, the first thing is that people who advocate for rent control are often focused

on the renters and what's good for the renters.

And they're not focused on the other people in this equation, the landlords.

Yeah, I mean, often if landlords, whether a big landlord or a small landlord or a very, very

teensy, tiny, small and extremely innocent landlord.

Pocket size.

They're often not brought into the conversation about property and housing economics and

rents and rent control.

And to the degree that they are, they're brought in as a villain and enemy image.

You know, a way for people to externalize their own insecurities around maybe their productivity or other personal things in their life.

Put yourself in their shoes a little bit. You're a landlord. You want a home that you don't live in and you want the tenant who

...