He didn't go nearly that far. He did detail how that the wealthy in rent-controlled apts get a government subsidy, which strikes many as especially unfair.
In truth, wealthy tenants in rent-regulated apartments are a tiny minority, as are cheaters. The vast majority are honest hardworking people whose lives would be thrown into chaos were they to be forced to move from neighborhoods and buildings where they have lived for decades, and yank their kids into a different school.
Many with a government subsidy get used to it and consider it natural. And it makes them quiet when others get their pork.
At least Malanga mentions all the right reasons that more housing is not built. But it has nothing at all to do with rent regulation, since new buildings are not regulated.
I think I see your point. But I also see the author's point that "rent control for the rich snuffs out potential new construction, because wealthy tenants, who’d have the money to buy or lease newly built housing, instead stay put in their deeply discounted apartments." It seems to me that the increased demand coming from the newly unsubsidized tenants would lead to a proportionate increase in new housing.
Moreover, the simple rules of supply and demand do not work in NYC, where there is a constant stream of newcomers from out of town eager to bring all the rents up to where market rents are now, should rent regulations cease. The idea of any rents coming down, to NY'ers who've been around for a while, is preposterous.
Given a constant demand for housing in NYC, a smaller number of unregulated units should get a higher rent per unit. More units should get a lower rent per unit.
All envy sucks. Envy of the poor by the rich sucks the chrome off a ten-ton diesel.
Not envy to protest robbing x to benefit y.
I explained why pure supply-and-demand laws don't work here. It's the same reason the schools are so bad: No place for the kids to get hired when they graduate, because of the constant influx of highly qualified out-of-towners. So why should they bother to work hard?
And finally, no one is getting cheated, except in their own minds. Wealthy types like Malanga salivate at the thought of living in a cheap apartment, thinking of all the cash they'd save, but they're not actually getting cheated, because nothing would change if the rent regs ended. Or the only thing that would change is that unregulated tenants would stop feeling cheated.
The landlords are not getting cheated either: They have a guaranteed increase every year, even if their expenses have gone down, as they did this past year because of the warm winter. They had the chutzpah to claim hardship because of increased security costs. Show me one landlord who has increased security. The doormen are all out switching the cars from one side of the street to the other, sleeping, or mysteriously absent while the "Doorman Will Be Back in Five Minutes" sign grows cobwebs.