Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
That is encouraging home ownership by making taxes less. But 1)the taxes I would otherwise pay don't go directly to anything- so it's not like the deduction takes from the poor (SS, especially G's SS, takes from the richer to give the poorer) it takes from the general fund- and home ownership can extend pretty far down the economic ladder.
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Any deduction necessarily imposes greater costs on those who don't get the deduction -- either you make up the lost revenue from them, or you make it up by borrowing and they bear at least some of that burden.*
So, the mortgage interest deduction shifts costs. Generally onto poorer people. And we do this because we want to favor the "common good" of home ownership, and the group of homeowners. And all of them individually, too.
*And no, you can't say "just make it up through not spending it" because unless all taxes are zero, any deduction means the government is getting funding from some other source.
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