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: Again we must, ask: What does this have to do with freedom? A rent increase isn’t a coercive threat. It is a landlord’s revised offer to do business—to trade continued use of an apartment for a revised price. As in any other market transaction, consumers (in this case, tenants) are free to accept the trade or walk away from it. Rent increases do not threaten freedom. But rent increases do threaten tenants’ power (ability) to keep apartments. Rent controls are designed to protect this power. These controls give current tenants the power to keep apartments that prospective tenants would gladly pay more to rent. Of course, this reduces landlords’ freedom.