Title: Freedom or Power? - Foundation for Economic Education
Headings: Freedom or Power?
Freedom or Power?
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Exploitation
Rent Controls
Freedom to Associate
Freedom of Speech
The Range of Options
Freedom and Government Intervention
Power and Government Intervention
Opportunities Overlooked
No Precise Measure of the Costs of Intervention
Brian Summers

Content: And, by preventing prospective tenants from bidding for apartments, controls reduce their freedom as well. Rent controls also reduce landlords’ power to charge “high” rents. But, as we have seen, this power isn’t coercive. And it isn’t arbitrary. It is determined by the supply of rental housing and tenants’ demand. In these terms, the only “excessive” rent is a rent that no tenant will freely pay- one that exceeds the supply and demand conditions set by the market. Minimum wages and rent con-trois are just two forms of price control. All such controls reduce freedom by abrogating prices peacefully agreed upon in the market. And all create conditions so bad that further moves from freedom are quickly proposed. All this, of course, in the name of freedom!