The Rent is Too Damn High
I’m quite upset that Matt Yglesias came out with an ebook called The Rent Is Too Damn High before I had a chance to use that title for one of the iterations of my rentier-capitalism arguments. That aside, the book condenses a number of themes that will be familiar to regular readers of Yglesias’s blog — in particular, his advocacy of the virtues of urban density, and his condemnation of the thicket of local regulations that bias the United States away from dense development. Mike Konczal has a bunch of interesting things to say about it, which I’ll try not to repeat. (Though on his last point, regarding the state’s role in gentrification, I’d add that Neil Smith’s work is worth a look.) In lieu of a full review, here are two things that struck me as I read the book.
All That Is Solid Melts into Air
Mike criticizes the limitations of Yglesias’s analysis of rent control, and points us to JW Mason’s great post on the subject. The basic point is that rent control isn’t just about prices, it’s just as much about stabilizing neighborhoods and reducing turnover. But it doesn’t surprise me that Yglesias misses this, because the omission is symptomatic of a larger weakness in his style of analysis.
Toward the end of the book, after recounting the virtues of allowing new, high-density development, Yglesias remarks that:
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.