"that's exactly the problem with rent controls: They benefit the current local residents at the expense of future residents, and hurt society as a whole."
One man's problem is another man's social policy. I don't see this preference as anything more than a societal decision to give some value to social stability.
Fair enough. I find granting value to societal stability to be troubling, since it tends to privilege people who are already privileged - wealthy whites, for example.
I mean no offense, but I'm sure that the Latino families in The Mission and the Asian families in Japantown, Chinatown, and the Outer Sunset/Richmond [0] greatly appreciate the stability that rent control provides in a city that's inexplicably rabidly anti-development. :)
[0] To the knee-jerk downvoters: look up the demographic stats for those districts before you downvote. :)
I was taking the words "market rate" to mean "rate negotiated by people operating at arms length" as opposed to "rate dictated by government without any negotiations having taken place". But yes.
But why should anyone who already lives here care about that person?
They don't. And that's exactly the problem with rent controls: They benefit the current local residents at the expense of future residents, and hurt society as a whole. It's the same problem as property tax controls (current owners pay lower rates than future owners) and union seniority rules (current union members get paid more than future union members), which is why some states have laws prohibiting rent control in spite of the desire by local governments to impose it.