Politicians Tend To Emulate Their Colleagues

     American politicians tend to emulate the worst ideas of their Continental partners in crime. (Among the reasons so many of them dislike Donald Trump is that he does the opposite.) This is particularly true when it comes to taxation.

     Up north in Canada, the government taxes virtually everything – and as hard as they can. Like our statist thugs governments, they never have “enough money.” Just now, they’re entertaining the idea of taxing Canadian homeowners’ home equity:

     If you own a home, particularly if it’s paid off, congratulations. You’re about to become the government’s next target.
     For years, Liberal governments have hunted for new revenue sources. First, it was high-income earners. Then it was small businesses. Then it was emissions, and now, they’ve found the motherlode: Home equity.
     The combined equity in Canadian homes — what people actually own after mortgages — is worth trillions. That’s not a typo. Trillions. This wealth wasn’t handed out. It wasn’t generated by government programs. It was built by Canadians who worked overtime, cut spending, and took risks to buy property and maintain it.
     When politicians see numbers that big, they don’t think about personal sacrifice. They see opportunity. They see a pot of money they didn’t earn but can tap, spin, and reframe as a “solution” to national problems. Especially now, with new programs promised and no fiscal discipline in sight.

     Big pots of money attract politicians the same as fresh piles of shit attract flies. If you’ve got it, they want it, and nothing but armed resistance will keep them from reaching for it. The examples are legion. I’m sure you could cite a few yourself.

     Now, the above is happening in Canada, and so is not Americans’ problem… for now. But it’s not that long ago that the Clinton Administration proposed to tax American homeowners in a similar if not identical fashion. President Clinton’s rationale was that homeowners have an “unfair advantage” over non-homeowners:

1. We don’t pay rent;
2. Our property taxes are federally tax-deductible.

     Keep your eyes on the House Ways and Means Committee. If the Canadian federal government imposes a home equity tax and makes it stick, you can bet the mortgage money that our federal government will try it, too.

     A tangential but related observation: I’m a homeowner. I get one or more calls every week from unidentified persons who want to know if I’d be interested in an “offer.” I’m not and I tell them so. But consider: it would be in American governments’ interest for us all to be renters. Renters can be herded far more easily than homeowners. And that “15-minute” “Smart City” idea has never been buried. (Nope. It’s never even had Extreme Unction.) So our rulers have more incentives than just the financial one to “encourage” us out of our owned homes. Given their oft-demonstrated avarice, how can we trust them not to embrace the Canadian Liberals’ proposal to tax home equity?

     Remember that you read it here first.