One of the Left’s favorite sweet-sounding euphemisms is “equity,” by which they mean the guarantee of equal outcomes rather than equal opportunity. In practice, it’s de facto socialism, and it’s at the core of a new executive order from President Joe Biden targeting the housing market.

The new rule, set to go into effect on May 1, will force homebuyers with good credit scores to pay more for their mortgages to subsidize loans assumed by those with poor credit. According to one estimate, buyers with credit scores of 680 or more who take out a $400,000 mortgage will need to pay an additional $40 per month for that mortgage as a result of the order. Those who opt to put more money down upfront will likewise get slammed with additional fees.

The order is part of the Biden administration’s push for more affordable housing, which the White House has said is necessary to make up for “residential segregation” and the high costs that have had “a particular impact on low- and moderate-income families, and people and communities of color.” In other words, the Biden administration wants to level out the playing field, as it were, and give those whom it sees as oppressed a shove up the ladder.

But the problem is that true equity is impossible as long as there are some ahead of others. Those at the top of the ladder must be yanked down a few rungs, while those at the bottom are lifted up. And that’s exactly what Biden’s new executive order seeks to do. He’s punishing those who have worked hard, spent their money responsibly, and made smart financial choices — i.e., the “privileged” — in order to prop up “the oppressed.”

This ideology is behind a number of this administration’s leftist initiatives — from Biden’s proposed unrealized capital gains tax, i.e., a wealth tax, to its endorsement of affirmative action in college admissions policies. But it’s impossible to understate just how disastrous this housing order will be. Propping up low-credit buyers who could not otherwise qualify for a mortgage is a big part of the reason the housing market crashed in 2007.

But it seems Biden is willing to risk economic tumult so long as his ideological goals are achieved.