Negative Gearing

When I first hear about negative gearing, the one question that comes to mind is that: How can you lose money and be happy with it? Negative gearing being a tax-reduction strategy that is Australia-exclusive, I must say it is one of the most confusing topics I have encountered in this course. Although now I have a clearer understanding of the concept by now, it still doesn't make sense to me why Australians would favor negative over positive gearing. The tax reduction accompanied with negative gearing is certainly a nice treat, but it is just a treat, the main motivation with gearing should lie with the rise in value for the property you invested in, rather than the reduction of tax. I have found an article on the web where Clithoroe explains how negative gearing works (http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=143509) and I must agree with his viewpoint that a loss is still a loss.