OT re: why subsidize home ownership:
For social stability.
For centuries, the French peasantry were a social force of chaos and revolution. Every new religion, every violent revolutionary, found a ready audience among the rural serfs. Every time the central government was weak, there were revolts in the provinces, which had to be put down with much destruction and death. Then, Napolean changed this, permanently. He gave them land, transforming the rural population from landless serfs to small landowning farmers. Not much land, but enough to give them a stake in The Status Quo. Since then, this population has been a force for stability and Order. Every French government that is threatened, can recruit an army from this population, and keep Chaos at bay.
I measure the success of a society, by things like % literacy, average lifespan. And % home ownership (which is currently at an all-time high in the USA). |
