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Comment by dmitrygr | Hacker News Reader

San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York completely, absolutely, and unquestionably fixed high priced housing by making it effectively subsidized via rent control. It totally worked. There are no problems with the system at all, there are no vacant units being held by owners who fear the results of rent control and inability to actually engage in capitalism. Groceries will be an equal success.

Government involvement by distorting markets always fixes everything.

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Germany, for example has rent controls, this is generally a great success, but in Berlin it’s a total disaster.

The contention that it “doesn’t work” in LA and NYC doesn’t really tell us anything useful about groceries.

What you also seem to miss is that government intervention in markets is actually the norm, not the exception, they just don’t normally intervene in ways that get sensationalised by the press.

Not in America. In America, lack of government intervention is the norm. Which is probably why almost all the large companies in the world and most successful startups are here and not in Europe. Also probably why the standard of living is significantly higher here.

Yes! As long as we don't confuse "Standard of Living" with "Quality of Life " - all the money in the world won't help with the results of eating a bad diet, all too often. For example, what's up with the overeating that results in obesity, diabetes and heart disease (all of which correlate with later cognitive decline) - then we need to inject peptides for curbing appetite? Sure, huge industry, big profits, trillion dollar stock valuations - big Standard of Living! But it's kind of "bass ackwards" - simply improving dietary habits could save us all a boatload of money and prevent completely avoidable lifestyle diseases. Sorry if this is "doomer" stuff - but there's an easy way out, and it can be fun, and good for the wallet.

Los Angeles solved housing after the wildfires like this:

https://members.aagla.org/news/once-again-la-county-board-of...

It’s very effective: people with previously unrented units will obviously decide to rent them out at, legally, at exactly 160% of the FMR rates, thus making lots of new housing available. FMR rates can be easily found here:

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2026_code...

And the fact that it’s impossible to predict the law more than one month in advance will guarantee success!

Hah, did anyone fall for that? I know people who were about to move out of LA County, rent somewhere cheaper, and rent out their house to a family that needed it, except that 160% of FMR is utterly, hilariously below market in LA’s housing emergency and isn’t really enough to make the whole housing swap worthwhile, so their house is not actually available to rent. Good job, LA.

P.S. If one could instantly get a permit to rebuild a modern house on the site of one’s burnt-down house, then the housing emergency might resolve faster.

> Government involvement by distorting markets always fixes everything

If you sarcasm this broad: Letting the market run free destroys everything. Here's my evidence: broken atmosphere (CO2), broken ecosystems, poisoned rivers, lakes and fields, lots of people still struggling to pay for basic necessities. What's yours?

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