Wouldn’t those who are willing to exchange sex for rent still be able to do so by selling sex to other people than their landlord and using the money from that to pay the landlord? Seems like that should prevent it from changing the demand much.
Basically, your argument is that the law doesn’t prevent any homelessness contrary to what you argued in the OP because the woman can just prostitute themselves and pay the landlord?
It is worth noting that if they prostitute themselves with another person that person is going to have less power over them and thus has less ways to exploit them. The justification for the law is that the power balance is a problem.
Given how easily you change from “the law is going to leave woman homeless” to “the law isn’t going to leave anyone homeless because the woman can just engage in normal prostitution” that suggests you have a predetermined conclusion and haven’t really thought much about the effect of the law.
I think the middle paragraph of this comment is a very good point, and could easily be enough to justify the law. (The tenants has nowhere to go if the landlord gets pushy or aggressive.) However, the last paragraph I think is a bit uncharitable. The OP makes no secret of the fact that they have a certain class of laws/restrictions that they are arguing against, with this being just one example, and that loophole is specific to the example.
Given how easily you change from “the law is going to leave woman homeless” to “the law isn’t going to leave anyone homeless because the woman can just engage in normal prostitution” that suggests you have a predetermined conclusion and haven’t really thought much about the effect of the law.
Good point. I feel like it shouldn’t happen much but I agree the simple economic model predicts it should. I could resolve it within the model as some kind of market friction argument (finding someone to sell sex to is not trivial, the landlord makes it easier to go into prostitution by providing himself as a “steady employer”), but I think my real intuition is that this is a place where homo economicus breaks down so I shouldn’t be trying to apply simple economic models.
Also, even if my initial argument does work, this is basically a novel form of rent control, so the standard arguments against rent control should apply (supply isn’t completely inelastic, constraining demand will reduce future supply, which we don’t want).
If the simple economic models break down, it might be worthwhile to think about what other models apply. And also to think about how we know that the simple models break down.
Wouldn’t those who are willing to exchange sex for rent still be able to do so by selling sex to other people than their landlord and using the money from that to pay the landlord? Seems like that should prevent it from changing the demand much.
Basically, your argument is that the law doesn’t prevent any homelessness contrary to what you argued in the OP because the woman can just prostitute themselves and pay the landlord?
It is worth noting that if they prostitute themselves with another person that person is going to have less power over them and thus has less ways to exploit them. The justification for the law is that the power balance is a problem.
Given how easily you change from “the law is going to leave woman homeless” to “the law isn’t going to leave anyone homeless because the woman can just engage in normal prostitution” that suggests you have a predetermined conclusion and haven’t really thought much about the effect of the law.
I think the middle paragraph of this comment is a very good point, and could easily be enough to justify the law. (The tenants has nowhere to go if the landlord gets pushy or aggressive.) However, the last paragraph I think is a bit uncharitable. The OP makes no secret of the fact that they have a certain class of laws/restrictions that they are arguing against, with this being just one example, and that loophole is specific to the example.
I’m not the OP.
Sorry. My mistake.
Good point. I feel like it shouldn’t happen much but I agree the simple economic model predicts it should. I could resolve it within the model as some kind of market friction argument (finding someone to sell sex to is not trivial, the landlord makes it easier to go into prostitution by providing himself as a “steady employer”), but I think my real intuition is that this is a place where homo economicus breaks down so I shouldn’t be trying to apply simple economic models.
Also, even if my initial argument does work, this is basically a novel form of rent control, so the standard arguments against rent control should apply (supply isn’t completely inelastic, constraining demand will reduce future supply, which we don’t want).
If the simple economic models break down, it might be worthwhile to think about what other models apply. And also to think about how we know that the simple models break down.