The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

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Chapter 13 • Helter Shelter
complained about landlords raising rents. Sure, costs were up and
more people were renting, but my dad said that was no reason for
us to pay more. So the tenants or – former tenants, I should say –
demanded that the Council of Lords prohibit the raising of rents. The
Council did just that and hired a pack of snooping administrators,
inspectors, judges, and guards to enforce the new rules.”
“Were the tenants pleased?”
“At fi rst, sure. My dad felt secure about the cost of a roof over
our heads. But then the landlords stopped building new apartments
and stopped fi xing the old ones.”
“What happened?”
“Costs kept going up – repairmen, security guards, managers,
utilities, taxes, and the like – but the landlords couldn’t raise the
rents to pay for it all. So they fi gured ‘Why build and fi x just to lose
money?’”
“Taxes went up, too?” asked Jonathan.
“Sure, to pay for enforcing rent control. Budgets and staff had to
grow,” said the girl. “The Council passed rent control but never tax
control. Well, when repairs and upkeep stopped, everyone started to
hate the landlords.”
“They weren’t always hated?”
“No, before rent control, we had lots of apartments to choose
from. Landlords had to be nice to get us to move in and stay. Most
landlords acted friendly and made things attractive. If there were
any nasty landlords, word got around fast and people avoided them
like the rats they were. Nice landlords attracted steady tenants while
nasty ones suffered a plague of vacancies.”
“What changed?”
“After rent control everyone got nasty,” she said with a look of
despair. “The worst prospered the most.” She sat down on the curb
to scratch Mices behind the ears. Mices rolled over and began to
purr.
Aware of Jonathan staring at her, she continued confi dently,
“Costs went up, but not the rents. Even the nicest landlords had
to cut back on repairs. When buildings became uncomfortable
or dangerous, tenants got mad and complained to the inspectors.
The inspectors slapped fi nes on the landlords. Of course, some