[eDebate] homelessness - communication praxis

[Christopher Cooper]

JNT:
 
"If you own your home, you are receiving a substantial government subsidy.
How? Mortgage interest deduction. Ask yourself why it's okay and right for a
homeowner to get thousands and tens of thousand of dollars a year in a
deduction on their taxed when we balk at spending money to shelter people,
provide transitional housing, etc."
 
Coop:
 
This is one of the most powerful arguments that I use in the press against
those who are critical of affordable housing subsidies.  It is quite
telling.  The money "spent" on the mortgage interest deduction is nearly 10
times (!!!) the amount spent on subsidized housing.  It is a clever ruse,
then, when conservatives try to make philosophical objections to the idea of
government subsidy.  CLEARLY, the issue is not that there IS a
subsidy...it's WHO GETS IT!
 
And another thing...because real estate almost universally appreciates and
because of the "hidden" government subsidies for home ownership...the only
real hurdle in wealth aquisition in this country is getting past the lending
institutions.  THEY ARE THE GATEKEEPERS.  If you can convince them to give
you enough money to buy property, that property: (A) appreciates (providing
you free income), (B) allows you to take a mortgage interest deduction
(making you virtually tax-free), and (C) allows you to build equity (which
essentially means your housing is free).  The KEY gate to wealth aquisition
is property ownership.  And the institutions that control that gate are
hardly laudable.
 
from the front,
 
Coop
 
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