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Originally Posted by Scucca  Have a look at all Western countries. You'll find that, in general, countries with lower social welfare provision have higher home ownership rates. The only issue is the direction of causation. For example, you could argue that there is a lower incentive to invest in the welfare state when there is high home ownership (and therefore self-insurance). |
That could also because the countries with lower social welfare provisions also may tend to have higher per capita GDPs. (Not to mention they may have lower tax burdens allowing them to buy homes, since most U.S. taxes are levied on income, whereas the VAT would likely decrease the purchasing power of the poor to some degree). Another problem with that is that the U.S. has higher home ownership rates, and lower population density. In most cases owning a home in the U.S. is cheaper than in Europe (not to mention part of the "American Dream".)
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Originally Posted by Scucca Its British evidence and therefore falls under the NHS umbrella. Why would a home owner view mental illness as socially acceptable? |
Mental illness is a broad term. It can entail things like ADD, OCD, and many other things. It is not necessarily a severe illness (although it sometimes can be). If one is a wealthier then it tends to be that they can afford to provide their children with the treatment for their illness. Home-owners may also be more likely to notice such illness as they are more likely to have a spouse that spends their time at home (house-husband housewife). Also, does that control for income differences?
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Originally Posted by Scucca Actually you can go the other way and suggest lower benefits. For example, with the poor being a high proportion of home owners, it is increasingly difficult to maintain housing quality. There aint much fun in damp and rot. |
It would be difficult to maintain apartment quality if a larger percent of the poor occupied apartments (or other such living spaces). That would create more externalities as a degrading apartment hurts all tenants, and the neighbors. A degrading house hurts the one resident and some of the neighbors. (The possible exception could be a trail, which has the same incentive structure as a house).