Ok if someone is behind on their bills the most logical thing to do would be sell something, for example your house, but the value of your house dropped and you cant sell it if you wanted to. Then tax credit is given to buyers and someone says "shit I will buy a house if I can get 15g's" so that responsible borrower (such as yourself) buys the house. 1. the home owner gets out of a house they cant afford 2. the bank owns good debt (your debt) 3. the bank gets bad debt (theirs) paid