JMJ
October 18,2011
The NDP’s major platform is rent control which shows that they as usual are appealing to fear, envy and anti- economics. For the last fifty years there has been study after study, reality observation after reality experience that rent control does not work whether it’s New York, Chicago, Saskatoon or northern Saskatchewan. Rent Control creates slums, discourages building, and makes people fearful of improving their economic situation by hard and consistent work.
Businessmen work to make a profit. If they don’t make a profit they can’t continue their business, they can’t continue to give people work and can’t continue to provide a service. They can sustain a loss for a while; they can break even on a few projects; they can have a profit that is well below a salary but eventually they have to have a profit big enough to pay for expanded work, pay their employees and give themselves and their families a comfortable life style. If they don’t they simply will have to quit usually hurting other businesses in the process.
Right now there is an economic boom in Saskatchewan. Eventually that benefits all of us. More work, more people means more need for housing. Businessmen will build houses, apartments and renovate existing ones. But they have to be allowed to make a profit. That means they have to have rents or payments that make their work worthwhile. Right now housing and rents are high in the cities. As more people build,
If rent control is slapped on the housing market several things will happen.
1. Construction will stop. Businessmen will not build if someone is going to tell them what rent they can expect.
2. Existing rental units will not be renovated and maintained. Businessmen cannot afford to run out and fix plumbing emergencies and paint rooms if their profit is gone.
3. Renters will be afraid to work or get better jobs because their rent will increase. They will be afraid to work themselves out of fixed rental brackets. That is bad for families and individuals. It encourages unemployment and living on welfare. People lose their sense of pride and responsibility.
4. More and more uncivil civil servants will be hired with an antagonism towards property owners and businessmen. More tax payer money will be wasted and more people will have to pay more taxes which will be used against them. There will be continued antagonism between renter and owner instead of mutual benefit. As it now stands the rentalsman office will not help public housing disputes between renters and rental boards such as La Ronge Housing Authority. More people will live in fear and may have temporary housing but will not have homes in which they can control, fix up and run.
5. There will be a cry for more public housing because the private sector will not build if they cannot make a profit and if they cannot control their business.
6. Housing shortages will continue and grow worse.
7. Government waste and interference will grow worse.
8. Slums and families without homes to call their own will multiply.
DO NOT VOTE FOR A PLATFORM THAT WILL DEPEND ON YOUR STAYING POOR TO HAVE A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD. Vote for a future for yourself and your children. Gay
