In his 1967 speech The Three Evils of Society, Martin Luther King, Jr. accused white civil rights leaders, and whites in general, of promoting “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.” His line of argument was compelling, and evoked what today’s free-market activists think about government programs: no matter what that program is, it guarantees resources for the entitled while denying resources to the underserved.
Socialism for the rich is exactly what happened last night in the County Council. Council Members Jawando, Mink, Sayles, Stewart voted for a very harsh form of rent control, knowing full well that doing so will decimate the county’s rental housing stock. What will happen to those rent-burdened residents? When their landlords become as destitute as they are, and when they sell their modest properties at a loss, where will those renters go? Those council members certainly don’t care; they haven’t mentioned it once.
None of those heartless council members are renters, so they won’t need to face the consequences of their heartless actions. None of those heartless council members mentioned anything about the nine county-owned golf courses. Those public assets are protected and available for anyone who has the leisure cash and the leisure time to play 18 holes. The same goes for the county’s archery ranges, community gardens, driving ranges, tennis courts, and cricket fields. How many mothers taking their children to a doctor on a bus are playing cricket?
A county council that restricts housing supply and schedules golf games is a county council that practices socialism for the rich.
I’m starting a tabulation of the county’s rental stock as published on realtor.com. As of July 14, here were the number of units available for rent throughout MoCo.
If I haven’t brought you to tears by now, this graphic should. In a functioning free market, there are always more sales at the low end of a good than at the high end. Airline seats, automobiles, hotel rooms, cheeses, purses, restaurants—name any retail sector, and by far there are more transactions at the low end than at the high end. Any one of the county’s McDonald’s restaurants serves up a whole lot more hamburgers than North Bethesda’s Julii serves scallops risotto. MoCo’s housing market is already strangled by archaic zoning and MDUs, and that’s why there are more rentals at the high end than the low end. It will only get worse with rent control. (Free-market capitalists get rich by providing resources to the poor; socialists get rich by denying resources to the poor. Our county excels in the latter.)
I’ll keep tabs on this inventory, and publish the results every month or two. I expect to see a serious decline in the rental inventory within twelve months’ time.
To those renters making below 80% of the annual median income, we betrayed you. We didn’t show up on election day to counter the Takoma Park exclusionists; we didn’t fight for rezoning, and thereby gave the exclusionists the casus belli they need to persecute you. You have to realize that Montgomery County was, is, and always will be built for the wealthy socialists who forcibly take everything for themselves and make sure you stay off their golf courses.
