> Also why should cities prioritize protecting residents based on how long they've lived there? Everyone counts the same.
That's a great question. Why do countries prioritize existing citizens over all people who want to move into them? We are, after all, all the same. Two legs, two arms, just under a dozen fingers, most of us aren't destructive shitheads.
If we just let in anyone who wants to emigrate, you wouldn't be trapped in an apartment, or home, or city or life you were born into. You would always have the chance to 'upgrade' to one that's worse!
You're not emigrating anywhere, lol. Should I be treated like trash when I move from Bronx to Queens? How about SoHo to Tribeca? All US citizens have the same rights and every vote counts the same as every other vote.
Should Juan be treated like trash if he wants to move from Mexico City or Honduras to Queens?
Why should you deny him that mobility? Is he any worse a person than you are? Why does he have to jump through hoops and quotas and queues and all sorts of degrading, dehumanizing bullshit before he can do so?
Why?
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If your answer is 'because that's the law and because we can make him jump through all those hoops', that's the answer to why cities choose to protect people who are existing residents at the expense of people who aren't. Because it's the law and because they can, if you don't like it, tough, you are free to go somewhere else.
I guess I need to hear more about your seniority rules. If I leave in a city all my life and leave for a month, do I have to start over when I move back?
Not sure what your point is. My point is that the rules around rent exist to protect current residents of a city. Just like rules about immigration exist to protect current residents of a country.
If you think one of them is immoral and unfair, but the other isn't, you're the one who needs to square that cognitive dissonance - not me.
It sounds like you generally think economics should trump the welfare of existing residents. That's certainly a view, but a logical consequence of it is wide-open borders.
> you're the one who needs to square that cognitive dissonance - not me.
No, you are. You have imaginary rules about who should be protected in a city (based on seniority??) that nobody else is aware of and are certainly not following. It goes by things like age and net worth, and basically nobody gives a shit how long you've lived somewhere.
> You have imaginary rules about who should be protected in a city (based on seniority??)
Rent control is not imaginary (Any more than any other rules are), and yes, that is exactly how it functions, for the purpose that I have described.
It advantages senior occupants (Who are grandfathered into controlled rates), at the expense of junior ones, or ones who don't live there yet (Who are presented with inflated rates, for obvious economic reasons).
Also why should cities prioritize protecting residents based on how long they've lived there? Everyone counts the same.