This is the first that I am hearing someone suggest a saving account for homeowners. A neat idea but we are getting carried away with all of these tax-advantaged accounts.
401ks, HSAs, IRAs, 529s, FSAs, Trump accounts…etc. Each has their own set of rules that become so byzantine, most people don’t want to even bother.
The tax code is trying very hard to become a consumption tax by exempting savings…without actually becoming a true consumption tax.
Better to rip the bandaid off and just abolish income tax and replace with a consumption tax. Or establish large tax advantaged accounts that can be used for anything.
I appreciate what you guys are doing here. To throw out another idea regarding student loan debt: extend Public Service Loan Forgiveness to cover time spent out of the workforce caring for a dependent child, which would reduce the marriage and family penalty for someone (usually a woman) who feels like her student loan debt precludes starting a family.
Brillaint framework for centering housing policy on family formation! The demographic dividend principal reduction is particulary clever because it flips the financial calculus of children from liability to asset. One thing that stands out is how elegantly these policies avoid the bureaucracy trap, most work through existing tax structures or market mechanisms. The empty nest mobility incentive addresses a supply bottleneck nobody talks about. It's refreshing to see policy that targets life events rather than income brackets.
1 -2 Relative to the status quo, maybe. But not if we had, a we should, a proper child recredit
3. What do the data say about defaults? IS a dollar of student loan debt better than credit card? It sounds reasonable but Fanny/Freddy are in the (bad) business of promoting 30 fixed rate mortgages.
4. Like 1-2. This is a work-around of the general problem of taxing income instead of consumption.
5. This is a demand side “solution’ to a supply side problem. Too clever by half
6. Why not just amend LIHTC to apply to housing at any income level, but perhaps restricted to jurisdictions that have in fact reformed policy.
7. I agree with the concept of bribing jurisdictions to reform but this feels Rube Goldberg-ish
8. Something like this.
9. Good intention, but it’s better to remove the _disin_centive rtaher than crate anew _in_ centive
10. Maybe OK as a symbolic statement
11. If relief is to be offered for capital gains, it should be in the form of indexed gains. Of course, if we taxed consumption progressively rather than income this problem would go away.
12. What is the policy problem to be solved? BTR should not suffer any _did_ incentive, but _in_ centive?
I normally like most ideas you guys throw out, but pretty much all of this is terrible.
1) I reject any financial subsidy that says “you are doing well financially so we don’t want you to have more kids and we are denying you this benefit because your income is too high”.
These initiatives save like zero money (they don’t exclude many people, so why bother) and are explicitly dysgenic and foster terrible incentives.
2) instead of all of these convoluted ideas to subsidize housing and student loans (seriously!) just increase the child tax credit!
3) most people already get a $500k exemption on housing capital gains. Increase that if you want. Forcing them to only sell to families is a nightmare and super illegal (fair housing laws).
4) families do not want to live in neighborhood with twelve Mexicans (mostly single day laborers) living bungalow style in ADUs. They want an HOA community that specifically outlaws cheap ADUs. That’s were all the family friendly housing is getting built today.
If you want a grandparent/au pair you can easily build a house with a suite built in and a covenant making it illegal to rent to strangers. I’ve done that in two houses now.
This is the first that I am hearing someone suggest a saving account for homeowners. A neat idea but we are getting carried away with all of these tax-advantaged accounts.
401ks, HSAs, IRAs, 529s, FSAs, Trump accounts…etc. Each has their own set of rules that become so byzantine, most people don’t want to even bother.
The tax code is trying very hard to become a consumption tax by exempting savings…without actually becoming a true consumption tax.
Better to rip the bandaid off and just abolish income tax and replace with a consumption tax. Or establish large tax advantaged accounts that can be used for anything.
Better yet replace it with a LVT 👀
I appreciate what you guys are doing here. To throw out another idea regarding student loan debt: extend Public Service Loan Forgiveness to cover time spent out of the workforce caring for a dependent child, which would reduce the marriage and family penalty for someone (usually a woman) who feels like her student loan debt precludes starting a family.
The whole public service loan forgiveness system is a mess and needs to be reworked imo.
Brillaint framework for centering housing policy on family formation! The demographic dividend principal reduction is particulary clever because it flips the financial calculus of children from liability to asset. One thing that stands out is how elegantly these policies avoid the bureaucracy trap, most work through existing tax structures or market mechanisms. The empty nest mobility incentive addresses a supply bottleneck nobody talks about. It's refreshing to see policy that targets life events rather than income brackets.
Thank you! I’m glad you appreciated it. Feel free to share it with anyone we would love to get it as wide as possible :)
1 -2 Relative to the status quo, maybe. But not if we had, a we should, a proper child recredit
3. What do the data say about defaults? IS a dollar of student loan debt better than credit card? It sounds reasonable but Fanny/Freddy are in the (bad) business of promoting 30 fixed rate mortgages.
4. Like 1-2. This is a work-around of the general problem of taxing income instead of consumption.
5. This is a demand side “solution’ to a supply side problem. Too clever by half
6. Why not just amend LIHTC to apply to housing at any income level, but perhaps restricted to jurisdictions that have in fact reformed policy.
7. I agree with the concept of bribing jurisdictions to reform but this feels Rube Goldberg-ish
8. Something like this.
9. Good intention, but it’s better to remove the _disin_centive rtaher than crate anew _in_ centive
10. Maybe OK as a symbolic statement
11. If relief is to be offered for capital gains, it should be in the form of indexed gains. Of course, if we taxed consumption progressively rather than income this problem would go away.
12. What is the policy problem to be solved? BTR should not suffer any _did_ incentive, but _in_ centive?
13. ?? Just remove the disincentives
Thank you for the thoughtful comment!
A complex array of subsidies, and the first footnote is "To keep this from turning into a compliance circus..."
Deregulate, end restrictive zoning and torturous permitting and environmental review processes, and give the market a chance to work.
Demand is already heavily subsidized (tax deductible mortgage interest, Freddie/Fannie guarantees), pouring gasoline on the fire.
I normally like most ideas you guys throw out, but pretty much all of this is terrible.
1) I reject any financial subsidy that says “you are doing well financially so we don’t want you to have more kids and we are denying you this benefit because your income is too high”.
These initiatives save like zero money (they don’t exclude many people, so why bother) and are explicitly dysgenic and foster terrible incentives.
2) instead of all of these convoluted ideas to subsidize housing and student loans (seriously!) just increase the child tax credit!
3) most people already get a $500k exemption on housing capital gains. Increase that if you want. Forcing them to only sell to families is a nightmare and super illegal (fair housing laws).
4) families do not want to live in neighborhood with twelve Mexicans (mostly single day laborers) living bungalow style in ADUs. They want an HOA community that specifically outlaws cheap ADUs. That’s were all the family friendly housing is getting built today.
If you want a grandparent/au pair you can easily build a house with a suite built in and a covenant making it illegal to rent to strangers. I’ve done that in two houses now.