Housing policy in Britain is a bit like this. Houses in Britain are so expensive that many people are priced out of the market. So the government offers tax breaks and cheap loans to first time buyers. This means first time buyers can afford to offer more money to purchase a house, bidding against each other and driving house prices even higher.

This has been going on for decades, but they still do it because there are no votes for letting house prices fall, and plenty of votes in offering help to first time buyers. The fact that the general taxpayer is footing the bill is just a detail.