Star Phoenix, October 26th – [T]he first bill an NDP government would table in office would be the introduction of rent control, he said.
(h/t Dan T)
Star Phoenix, October 26th – [T]he first bill an NDP government would table in office would be the introduction of rent control, he said.
(h/t Dan T)
The Sask NDP only want rent control because Saskatchewan is hard up for space just like New York City.
Wow….did this clown just emerge from Trudeau’s casket?
Hiking royalties(“Fair share” I presume)? Rent control?. Is Lunchenfinger taking training from Red Eddie?
you know you’re a socialist when…
We should invade Venezuela and liberate their oil reserves.
More rent control in Venezuela!
Why yes, that should alleviate their horrendous housing shortage. Who wouldn’t want to invest in a new house or apartment when one’s ownership rights are so badly compromized?
The ramifications of rent control are so blindingly obvious that even die-hard Marxists must see it. I can only assume that they want to exacerbate the housing shortage for political reasons.
Here’s a Nobel-prize-winning economist’s view of rent control:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent-affair.html
Rent Control: Too stupid even for Paul Krugman.
Dwain Lingenfelter and Hugo Chavez, birds of a feather. Who would have thought?
Rent control? This from the same bunch that mused during the 1970s and 1980s and wondered why farmers should own their own land, in particular Peter Prebble and some union numb**t from Regina. Can’t remember his name at the moment.
Take a look at any Econ101 text book and anyome can see why rent controls aren’t such a great idea.
Creating a housing shortage is his first order of ‘business’? That’s just dumb.
It just confirms my impression that in order to be a liberal or a socialist one’s knowledge of economics has to peak at the level of the front yard lemonade stand, if that.
The folly of his suggestion is so blindingly obvious that one has to seriously question wether he’s ever read so much as even a layman’s primer on economics, let alone a serious textbook. Despite that, he’ll garner votes from the non-working class.
Have any of you Saskatchewanites noticed how the media is totally ignoring this issue, while at the same time making a mountain out of the “school starts after the Labour Day weekend” mole hill?
He forgot those “shiatsu” houses, all good NDPEE idiots need a neighbourhood shiatsu house to go to when their Olivia can’t perform a decent shiatsu. Look where being stampeded by the media got Ed Stelmach, fair share, fair share of what, someone else’s hard work and risk, go join the occupy crowd you fair share jackasses, to lazy to make your own so you would rather whine about inequities in a land of only opportunity, what losers.
Can someone please explain to me the NDP definition of “affordable”? Or does it mean “free”
The word “affordable” is an NDP code word for shaft the taxpayer.
Poor old Dwayne. Good thing he’s not quarterbacking the Roughriders, his Hail Mary pass just fell behind him.
Thomas Sowell has written a good and readable book on economics, which everyone should read.
He devotes considerable space to the effects of rent control, the result of which inevitably is a lack of apartments etc. for rent.
It devastates the rental market, in fact: whether in New York, or Cairo, the effects are the same.
Rent control = more people available for Occupy Saskatoon and Regina.
NO worries, a prairie winter solves all those problems.
And that worked oh so well in Ontario. It managed to produce a 20 year chronic shortage of rental property. It also produced a massive rental increase on lease renewal.
Lingenfelter really has misread the mood of Saskatchewan voters. We’re getting tired of hearing “As government we know how to look after those of us left behind in the boom”. The only economic platform he has offered so far is how to spend it. Nothing on responsible management. It’s going to be a wipeout.
One more point. When Lingenfelter speaks of raising the royalties on Potash, he refers to the fact that he spoke to a Grade 6 class in Prince Albert and they told him it would be a good idea. Economics 101 is way too advanced for this guy.
Dwain was against rent control before he was for it:
http://saysonethingdoesanother.com/recorddetail.php?newsid=176
“Dwain Lingenfelter says he wants to implement rent control.
But in 1992, Lingenfelter and his NDP Government abolished rent control, and they never reinstated it during their 16 years in government.
In a 2002 interview, former NDP Social Services Minister Harry Van Mulligen said the NDP got rid of rent control because it didn’t work and it eliminated the incentive to build new rental spaces.
•”We did it because it didn’t seem to be working. It seemed to lock in rent increases. Under rent control, you are pretty much guaranteed your rent increase based on some inflationary figure and, of course, increase it further if you could demonstrate that you had costs over and above that to remodel or repair buildings. It didn’t seem to be having the desired impact of keeping rents down. Also, I don’t think it had a positive impact in terms of people’s decision to invest money in those areas because they saw it as a limited dividend potential.” ”
Another reason I’m staying in Alberta.
Here the big debate is that our new PC Premeire is just a “Red Tory” that reinstated Education cuts and doesn’t want to introduce anymore private sector healthcare.
This is seen as backwards and stale and leftist and the primary challengers is a libertarian right wing woman that wants to crush spending, throw CO2 initiatives in the garbage, defund abortion, reform the HRC’s, and put business first.
Then I look at Saskatchewan and Brad Wall is doling out the (Austrialian PM) Howard style goodies. Mild policies that aren’t so much conservatives as they aren’t socialists.
The primary challenger is a slime ball NDP’er that is running on a 1970’s platform of hard left socialism and huge swaths of the province are like,”Yeah…sounds like a good idea!”
Saskatchewan has a long way to go. The results of this election are going to be very telling. If the NDP aren’t crushed beyond their ability to function, then it’ll probably just be a matter of time before they’re back in power again.
(This coupled with the two big elephants in the room….Aging whites and growing Indian groups….and the challenges for the future may be insurmountable.)
There’s a sizable portion of the population that rents and if rental rates are going up that’s a concern for those people. To them ‘rent control’ sounds like a good idea and quoting Von Mises, Sowell or Krugman won’t change their mind about having to pay an extra thousand or two per year for a necessity. Lingenfelter has identified this demographic group and is dangling a carrot in front of them just like promising reduced taxes are a carrot for me. He will then identify other demographic groups and bribe them the same way. Socialists have been using this tactic to beat us for a couple of generations now. Our side has to find effective ways to counter this and win those people over. That’s politics 101 and it’s as confusing to many on the ‘right’ as economics 101 is to many on the ‘left’.
There isn’t a great deal of consensus in the economics “profession” but the idiocy of rent control is certainly one. As some have indicated above, there’s absolutely no need to explain the reasons. They’re patently, painfully obvious.
Another is minimum wage laws but of course the magic wand appeal of this one is irrestible to craven grifter pols across the political spectrum.
They did the rent control trick forty years ago, when I was living in Saskatoon. (Nothing new under the NDP sun) The predictable result ensued. All the developers skedaddled off to Alberta where they could invest their money in properties that actually increased the stock of rental properties.
I actually like the idea that Down-the-Dwain Lingenfelter has nothing new to offer. Those of us who lived through that time (and left and have subsequently returned) remember what a fiasco it was. Just another old Dipper idea that will be assigned to the dustbin of history’s failed ideas.
Me No Dhimmi at 1:09 PM: “There isn’t a great deal of consensus in the economics “profession”…”
Reminds me of a definition I heard years and years ago:
What is an economist?
A person who will tell you tomorrow why the prediction he made yesterday didn’t come true today.
The term,”rent control” is usually,in NDP parlance,just the heading for a myriad of rental property regulations,all slanted to the benefit of the renter.
The Dippers see landlords as evil,greedy demons taking advantage of poor tenant victims.
The landlord is often just a working person,but the Tenant’s Office will provide free legal help for tenants while the landlord has to hire his own lawyer. It’s much like the Human Rights Commission situation.
Here in B.C., tenants have “rights” and the laws are written vaguely enough that almost any dispute is settled in their favour.
I could go on burning up the bandwidth for 25 pages,but I think the message is clear, avoid rent controls like the plague.
In it’s own way, rent control is as bad as any socialist program ever invented by those unimaginative idiots who have no idea how the market place works.
Saskabushers are finally starting to see some prosperity, this is no time to go backwards. Vote the NDP to a tiny Opposition status,and keep ’em there for a long time to come.
The only thing that works to keep rental costs affordable is a glut of rental spaces. When landlords have to compete for renters, they will offer lots of perks, including lower rent charges than those demanded by their competitors. Even a child could understand that.
Putting controls on a landlord’s ability to compete reduces the incentive for developers to build new apartment spaces and before long there will be not enough good quality spaces available for renters to choose from.
In the case of Saskatchewan, with the sudden up-tick in population, it will simply take time for new rental spaces to become available. Construction of new buildings doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye. But it doesn’t happen at all, if investors/developers can’t make new buildings profitable.
these dimwitts that propose RENT CONTROLS should all be forced to be landlords, using their own funds to buy said rentals, while those controlls are in place, they may then learn a lesson or three
“The word “affordable” is an NDP code word for shaft the taxpayer.
Posted by: Ken (Kulak) at October 29, 2011 10:26 AM
Well Ken..according to the late great,and thankfully dead Lieton…it means making a 100G’s a year…and living in subsidized housing,while homeless people,which he and his chow-chow supported???…live on the streets!!
“Lingenfelter has identified this demographic group and is dangling a carrot in front of them”
Absolutely! Even most socialists, despite their ingrained stupidity, realize that rent controls are counter-productive. The promise of rent controls is, however, a bona fide method to grab a few extra votes.
Although Sask is thriving and opportunities abound, there is a portion of the population to which this prosperity means nothing. The label du jour coined by the socialists for this group is “marginalized” or, if you prefer, “disenfranchised”. Granted, there is a small percentage of Saskatchewanians who are in genuine need of government assistance and that’s all fine and good, but there is a much larger portion who look upon the province’s good economic times as an opportunity to increase their slice of the pie with minimum or no effort required on their part. These are the ones who have been told by the socialists that they are being left behind. Now with the NDP offering a handout and the Sask Party preferring the hand up approach, who do you think is going to get the vote?
The trick is to get this group to realize that a strong economy, lower taxes, job opportunities and steady, hands-off governance trumps freebees every time. Once this is accomplished and the politics of fear, envy and loathing are put to rest, the NDP is finished.
Yup. The let’s-get-rid-of-landlords movement starts with rent controls.
Tell you how it ends.
In Ontario, you can get 100% forgivable renovation loans from Dildo McDinky for your rundown apartment complex provided that you – get this – rent it out to “marginalized” tennants for fifteen years.
We need something. People like you Kate have money and land. Probably inherited. Who can afford 1/2 a million for a house let alone 1200.00 a monthe rent? Maybe higher wages are the answer.
ok4u….so higher wages for you? Q…What are your job skills?And Kate works hard for her bucks,just like most of us.Try getting out of mommies basement
and going to a trade school
Justthinkin farmers are rich landowners most of whom iherited their wealth. Work has nothing to do with it. And it is not god given.
Justhinkin you obviously don’t.
@ok4ua
Who owns a 1/2 million dollar house? Mine is 1200 sq ft and I paid 300K for it (last year). We never looked for houses in that price range, and why should we, we have no desire to be in debt for the rest of our lives.
You have to understand, you need to earn what you get, not just get it.