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Why is the best that progressives offer the poor so second-rate?

We ask this question in light of Scott Stringers just-released housing report. The city comptroller compares owner-occupied units, market-rate rentals, rent-regulated and public housing (run by the New York City Housing Authority).

Of these, he says, public housing shows the greatest frequency of maintenance deficiencies. Rental units regulated by government come in second.

Check out the chart: The more government control, the worse the condition. Other data in the report confirm the trend more generally, with owner-occupied units typically in the best shape and public housing and rent-regulated units in the worst.

Yet Stringers answer is to dump even more money into a losing proposition: Securing funding for NYCHAmust be a priority, he says. Others claiming to champion the poor will no doubt echo this folly.

For his part, even before this report was out, Mayor de Blasio was looking to bring more apartments under government control by getting Albany to cede rent-regulation authority to the city.

Its not just housing where the needy get shafted by government. Medicaid patients often get lousy health care. And parents with kids trapped in failing public schools can tell you what thats like.

If progressives want to help the poor get ahead, why not help them get what better-off people already have private housing, private care, private schools rather than consigning them to the inferior government alternative?

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