It is unfair, but eventually anyone in the service industry isn't going to be able to afford to live there, so they'll leave. That will cause one of a few things to happen:
1. Either the wages for those workers will rise to attract them back into the city or there just won't be those workers any more because they won't be able to afford to live there.
2. The workers will all move out of the city, but commute back into the city to work... just like millions of people every day, adding to the already ridiculous London congestion
3. Those jobs just won't exist any more meaning that the city is no longer desirable for people to live there.
The funny thing about a free market economy is that it largely regulates itself. People make emotive reasons for being where they want to be - until they don't want to be there any more.
Hyper aggressive rent control isn't the solution. More appealing alternatives to living in London for those in lower wage brackets is a solution. If people in that wage bracket no longer want to be in London, the wages in London will have to go up to compensate... or the rich people who live in London will have to do the work themselves... and I don't see that happening.
As long as there are people who are willing to put up with the situation - and there are clearly many that put up with it, much as it's shit and much as they hate it, they let it propagate by paying for it, using excuses like "I have no choice", the situation will continue. (I say using excuses, I do understand that many of them are in a position where they genuinely feel they have no choice)
"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want." - Anna Lappe
Let that sink in for a minute, because every time you get your wallet out, you should be asking yourself - is this contributing to a world that I want to live in?
You make some interesting points, but I can't agree with any of them. You basiclly lost me at "The funny thing about a free market economy is that it largely regulates itself"
That maybe true, but we're not dealing with free market economics. In hundreds of ways, some small, some big, the status quo is maintained by weak-kneed politicians giving into belligerent property developers and land owners who love spending tax-payers money but hate sticking to the deals they signed up to (hence all the ways they avoid building social and affordable housing).
and is propagated by people spending the money that allows those property developers to see profits by exploiting said politicians. If it weren't profitable to behave that way, they wouldn't. It's only profitable because even though people bitch and complain about it, they still part with their money, which allows the behaviour to continue. I understand that many thousands/millions of people feel they have no choice, but every time they pay their rent, they're allowing the situation to continue.
1. Either the wages for those workers will rise to attract them back into the city or there just won't be those workers any more because they won't be able to afford to live there.
2. The workers will all move out of the city, but commute back into the city to work... just like millions of people every day, adding to the already ridiculous London congestion
3. Those jobs just won't exist any more meaning that the city is no longer desirable for people to live there.
The funny thing about a free market economy is that it largely regulates itself. People make emotive reasons for being where they want to be - until they don't want to be there any more.
Hyper aggressive rent control isn't the solution. More appealing alternatives to living in London for those in lower wage brackets is a solution. If people in that wage bracket no longer want to be in London, the wages in London will have to go up to compensate... or the rich people who live in London will have to do the work themselves... and I don't see that happening.
As long as there are people who are willing to put up with the situation - and there are clearly many that put up with it, much as it's shit and much as they hate it, they let it propagate by paying for it, using excuses like "I have no choice", the situation will continue. (I say using excuses, I do understand that many of them are in a position where they genuinely feel they have no choice)
"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want." - Anna Lappe
Let that sink in for a minute, because every time you get your wallet out, you should be asking yourself - is this contributing to a world that I want to live in?