To the editor: Jonah Goldberg makes a good historic case that lease freezes, wealth taxes and worth controls have hardly ever delivered on their guarantees (“Democrats’ latest concepts have been failing for hundreds of years,” June 30). However his column misses one thing necessary: The Democratic Occasion’s main viewers for these proposals isn’t economists — it’s voters.
Political strategists have lengthy understood that daring, tangible-sounding pledges energize a base way more successfully than nuanced coverage papers. When a working household hears “we are going to freeze your lease,” the emotional resonance is instant, no matter what tutorial literature says about long-term provide distortions. Whether or not or not these concepts survive contact with a legislature — or with actuality — they serve their meant function on election day.
This isn’t distinctive to Democrats. Events throughout the spectrum routinely champion proposals whose political worth far exceeds their coverage benefit. The true query value asking is why voters proceed to reward guarantees that historical past suggests received’t ship. That reply lies not in economics, however in how successfully a message speaks to individuals’s lived frustrations.
Goldberg is true that these concepts don’t work. However they do get votes.
Hua Gu, Calabasas
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To the editor: With none lease management, somebody may pay all they will afford to lease an house for one 12 months. Following that, the owner may entertain a bidding struggle to see who’s keen and in a position to pay extra lease than you’ll be able to. It may be argued that you have to be grateful that you just obtained to reside in your good place for a 12 months, and if you happen to now have to maneuver perhaps 20 miles away from work, so be it.
Fortuitously to this point, L.A. metropolis management seems to worth stability — somebody nailing down a job, entry to colleges and companies, actions to share with others — and a spot to reside. It’s cheap that landlords are allowed reasonable annual lease will increase, and that they will search market lease when somebody strikes out.
Proudly owning a rental property is usually a good long-term funding, nevertheless it mustn’t essentially be a technique to get wealthy in a single day.
Ken Hense, Los Angeles
