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Without high prices, how would you keep people out of the most desirable cities? Birthrights? Lottery? Application essays? Immigration restrictions at the city level? Or not keep people out but let them become shanty towns?

Rent is a way to select residents according to how much value they can produce by living there. Even though it's wasted money, it's also as very good selection filter.

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How is it wasted money? The exact thing you're speaking of is the good being bought with that money. It is worth X amount of money to stay in a residence for a month. That is a good which is being sold to the highest bidder. And people buying it are freely trading their money for that good. If we were as a society to take those goods and just give them away, that'd work about as well as toilet paper nationalization in Venezuela.

I agree rent is not "wasted", however a large chunk of the cost of providing the service is the rent of fiat money from private banks to pay for the land.

We should try to suppress the % of economic rent.

Only if government did adjustments for living expenses for school teachers, police and firemen NIMBYs would get less sympathy.

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