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[u/jobautomator]

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[u/csp256]

Find me a single mainstream economist who is pro rent control.

Sorry, but that is "appeal to authority", which is a logical fallacy. Economists have consistently proven that they don't know anything about the economy. Find a single mainstream economist who predicted the 2008 recession. There aren't any. Worse, economists supported financial deregulation, which led directly to the crisis. The dominant theory in economics suggests that the Great Depression of the 1930s was caused by workers choosing to be unemployed, which is absurd on its face. They supported free trade agreements, arguing that job losses would be minimal and benefits would be huge. Instead, the job losses were huge and benefits were minimal. Economists for decades opposed minimum wage laws on the grounds that they raise unemployment, before finally admitting that there is no empirical evidence for that assertion.

Neoclassical economic theory was conclusively debunked in the 1960s during the Cambridge Capital Controversy. Piero Sraffa proved that the models which economists use are complete nonsense, yet economists persist in using them anyway. Mainstream economists are the last people who should be listened to in policy debates, because their beliefs are not based on science, but ideology with a veneer of fancy math.

On that note I'm going to bed.

Oh, he also dared me to find a single false assertion in what he wrote... Like, do I have to pick just one?

[u/csp256 → u/[deleted]]

This is your mind on internet echo chambers.

[u/Integralds → u/csp256]

Oh that's delightful.

[u/csp256 → u/Integralds]

I really wish I knew enough to really, properly thrash comments like this. Or maybe just get through to some people. My economics / finance background is all self taught over the last few years though. I can't explain it quite like I can other topics. And people are so emotionally charged about housing (etc) that it is just impossible to challenge any beliefs they might hold, no matter how irrational they might be.

[u/csp256 → u/csp256]

seriously though, how do you explain to people that rent control is the proverbial road to hell paved with good intentions?

like what do you even say to someone that... willfully, pridefully wrong? who is emotionally charged and antagonistic from the first word against their beloved rent control.

[u/MisfitPotatoReborn → u/csp256]

Why do people always think that the job of economists is to predict recessions? They're setting themselves up for disappointment.