Government and property rights

One of the purposes of government is to protect society as a whole from the selfish acts of the few. Rental unit owners are presumably already charging “market rates” as they were in an open market prior to recent legislation, so spiking rents right now is akin to usury.

Let’s look at other ways government usurps “property rights.” They prevent:

• Your neighbor from building a multi-story extension on their home right on your property line;

• Your neighbor playing their music at full volume in the middle of the night;

• The removal of catalytic converters and mufflers from cars;

• The replacement of commercial property without review, approval and permits;

• The blight of property; and

• The removal of trees from property.

The list goes on, but I don’t hear you complaining about any of those. What about protecting renters against opportunistic landlords who want to take advantage of a loophole to line their pockets by financially destroying their tenants?

I don’t care where you stand on “rent control” overall, but this is evil and wrong. Yes, most landlords are good people, but most landlords won’t be jacking up rents this month. This policy really only blocks the bad actors from behaving badly.

D M Goldstein

Foster City