Socialism

The DSA, MAGA, and the New Policy Nihilism

From rent control and Medicare for All to tariffs, politicians left and right are embracing policy ideas that have been repeatedly shown to not work. 

Peter Suderman | 7.23.2026 1:58 PM

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One of the most robust findings in economic research is that rent control doesn't work. A policy often sold as a humane way to make housing more accessible and affordable instead constrains housing supply and makes market housing harder to access and more expensive. 

Just about everywhere rent control, sometimes referred to as rent stabilization, has been tried, the same story plays out: Rent controls artificially freeze the price of housing, making many new developments, especially those aimed at more middle-income renters, financially untenable. Developers, in turn, shift their focus to building expensive, higher-margin luxury housing. The result is that there's not enough housing to meet market demand, and the housing that does get built is priced out of reach for the middle-class. As long as demand increases, rents go up, even for modest dwellings, so new entrants who aren't rich are increasingly priced out. 

This is the exact story that has played out in New York, where rent regulations have reigned for decades, and housing prices have skyrocketed as a result. 

Yet somehow a spate of up-and-coming Democratic Party figures have come to the conclusion that combating high housing costs in New York and elsewhere requires more rent control—not just in the city, but nationwide. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on a rent freeze, which the city's Rent Guidelines Board approved last month. The policy will affect a million already-rent-stabilized apartments. Mamdani-backed Democratic congressional candidate Darializa Avila........

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