[Hugh R]

In my mind, what it does is all of what you said and more. Subsidizing anything house, steel, corn, skews the market place. I think that if there were no Section 8 housing anywhere, people would move to where they could afford. Overall rental prices would drop because of lack of price supports, as housing prices dropped (rental mostly) more people could afford them. Yes there would also be more substandard housing and more crowding as well. All of these things would happen, yes you could get housing price drops, a few who didn't qualify for Section 8 who made too much would see houses become more affordable to them and you'd see people at the bottom end forced out/down and into more crowded places, all at the same time.

Interesting question: "Is the problem that LA is too expensive, or is the problem that low wage workers in LA don't get paid enough?

Were seeing exactly this problem in Santa Barbara which is on the coast north of LA about 90 miles. Its very, very expensive and far enough away from Ventura to the south and San Luis Obispo to the north that they're having problems getting hired help who will work for at or just above minimum wage. I mean gardners, and the like, not waiters and waitresses who mainly consist of the white kids from the University of California at Santa Barbara (where my daughter will be attending in the Fall). What they're seeing is an increase in the market clearing price that they have to pay for gardeners and other manual labor in order to attract that kind of labor to Santa Barbara, although most of it commutes from Ventura. Its not a matter of LA being too expensive, or labor being underpaid, its the market clearing price. Again, nobody has a "right" to live anywhere, they have a right to live where they can afford. Its why I live inland about 30 miles instead of on the beach. Its where I can afford to live. If you can't afford to live in Los Angeles (or anywhere else) without sucking taxpayer money in order to do it, you should move somewhere else. Should I demand that I get government subsidies in terms of rent control so that I can live at the beach?

Whats the difference between saying I want to live in Malibu at $10,000/month versus where I live at say $4,000/month, versus someone who wants to live in south-central Los Angeles (poorer area) at $1,500/month, versus where my sister live in New Mexico where you can get apartments for $750/month?