I have heard stories of people who bought houses to lower their tuition payments. After all, you have to pay your mortgage.
I have a friend who works in the business of helping people optimize themselves financially for college tuition. That means moving assets into IRA’s to lower available money, making you more eligible for need-based scholarships.
The government is the same way. They tax savings. Let’s say you invested $5,000 in a CD at 5% interest. They charge you 28% of the resulting $250 ($70) in taxes. That leaves you $180, or 4%. With typical inflation at a bit above 4%, you actually end up losing money.
Many people have also found it worthwhile to strategically walk away from a mortgage. Their house is so underwater financially it doesn’t pay to keep up the payments.
Many government programs create disincentives to switch jobs- the higher tax rates, loss of programs, etc. make it difficult to justify.
A famous archaeologist in the late 1800’s once paid tribe members a certain amount of money per bone fragment found. Sure enough, these enterprising tribesmen broke up the bone fragments into smaller fragments. Any human-based rules system is designed to be gamed, exploited, and loopholed legally.