When Rizzo brought up how prices far below the equilibrium can cause a shortage in goods available to the market due to unequal demand and supply, it immediately reminded me of my brother’s continual quest to find a decent apartment when he lived in New York City. Due to the artificial price ceiling (as it was called) on New York City apartments, my brother was forced to spend three years living in several inadequate apartments in three of the five boroughs of New York City with several friends, each time moving to a new apartment which was similarly priced but noticeably nicer. By the time he was twenty-five, he finally found an apartment that could comfortably house him and his roommate, but only after asking many of his former colleagues at Bear Stearns when they were giving up their apartments following the 2008 Wall Street financial disaster. He had it luckier than a friend of mine, whose family had to move to Westchester because they literally could not find a single apartment big enough to house his family in New York City because of the shortage caused by the low prices. In a city where over eight million people live and double that number (estimated) work, it is understandable that the prices on housing should not be too high, for fear of driving out those who work in the city, but with the subsidies comes hardship for those who can afford. I hope Rizzo teaches us an alternative to the artificial price ceiling that has a similar effect, just so I know how to fix the problem the New York City government has caused. (Well, outside of how they are handling the Occupy Movement, that is.)
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