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: When a worker freely agrees to a wage rate, he does so because, at the particular moment, that is his best option. From his point of view, he is better off accepting the wage than doing anything else. He is only being exploited when he is being coerced—as when union leaders exploit his forced exclusion from the labor market. Rent Controls
Fear of exploitation has also been instrumental in passing rent con-trois. These regulations are supposed to protect tenants from “exploitation” by ensuring their “freedom from excessive rent increases.” 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.