Who on here is saying that? If I was being pedantic you said 'everyone' but, thankfully, I'm not like that...
No I didn't. I said it was shallow to see that as being success. Not everyone gets the money from their home in the same way. Should someone who inherits a home or gets a loan for their deposit off a family member be just as proud or not quite as proud of owning their home? The ownership itself is not a barometer of individual deeds and therefore not a symbol of whether you are a success or not. If you start with hee haw, like I did, own your own home and have to pay out to help your parents out and manage to get a home you love at the end of it, you've every right to feel proud of it, it's not success in itself, though. Not everyone who owns a house has done it in that manor. It is no more of a success to own your own home thanks to accident of birth than it is to be unsuccessful if you don't have a house. It's not a single measure by which people can say they are a success or not. I don't think so, anyway. I own my house (well, the bank owns most of it just now, really) but it isn't something I should use as a measure of how I'm better than someone who doesn't own a house. This is not the same as saying you should be ashamed of owning a house at all.
Well there are some that think its not fair people may be forced financially into moving into alternative smaller accomodation. This is the whole point of the debate. some agree some dont.
I don't think there is anything "shallow" in giving your kids a great start in life than doing with what they will with a fully paid up property. I used to have to clean chimneys every night in the 70's to help keep the wolves from the door and I want my own children to have a good start in adult life. Im not doing that for my gratification but because I'm a good **** and I want my kids to have great lives. Hopefully achieve more in life than their old man.
Like I said, it's about your ambitions. I've set out to own my home, if I manage that after a 25 year mortgage, then I'll gauge that as success - for me. I won't be using it as a barometer to compare myself with some other person. If you're ambition is to own a home so you can GIRFU some other prick, then that's shallow, but for me to view my owning a property outright as success is not shallow as it's about me and my goals.
It is not about how much money you make from your home - it is about having the dignity and self respect to stand on your own two feet.
The real issue for me is not about money or taxes, but is about personal freedom - and the freedom not to be controlled by the state. People are stressed right now because the state is going to take away a little bit of something it has provided, the state pretends that it is a national Santa Claus, that all it does is give - when in fact it has to take from one person to give to another. So the person that has benefits from this system is reliant on the state, the person is not free to make their own choices because they are reliant on government policy. If the government changes policy then that person's life is changed - through no control of his own. Personal responsibility is diminished, your home is not your concern it is the governments, your health is not your concern it is the governments, your education is not your concern it is the governments, your supply of food is not your concern is the governments. You have only an illusion of freedom. Now take the person who pays into the state on average. This person may be an average or over-average employee or entrepreneur - your earnings are not your own, we the government have a claim on your earnings and your work - we will allow you to keep some of your earnings not because we recognise your right, but we recognise your need to survive. In order to make sure that we the government get the earnings that we demand we will employ a huge amount of inspectors to investigate your life and your bank account and to make sure you, the property of the state, are giving what you should be to the state - we long ago abolished prisons for people who owed private debts, but if you owe the government a private debt which you have hidden we still have a prison for you. Your freedom and privacy are now invaded, what you do with your personal life is not your own business, you need to declare it to the state - your freedom is eroded. Not only that but because we the state take so much of your earnings you do not have enough left to fund private education or private health care - so you are forced to use the state services we provide (and praise the state for providing them), your freedom of choice is removed. The government knows how to manage your life better than you. The great propaganda victory was the state convincing almost everyone that this system of control and the diminishment of self responsibility is moral.
