“We study history in order to understand the present and to prepare for the future. Because anything that has happened before can happen again.” – House Majority Whip James “Jim” Clyburn (SC-D) on 2.29.2020. One need not be political at all – or someone could be for against, or neutral towards Congressman Clyburn – and still walk away with an important insight useful in business as well as other fields of human interest. Clyburn’s remark could be one of the best short descriptions on the value of knowing history. Some accurate historic insights are good, more can be better.
From an article posted Father’s Day 2022 on ZeroHedge is this historic insight: “Diogenes was a controversial figure. He was allegedly banished from, or fled from Sinope, for debasement of currency. He was the son of the mintmaster of Sinope, and there is some debate as to whether or not he alone had debased the Sinopian currency, whether his father had done this, or whether they had both done it.[2][4] After his hasty departure from Sinope he moved to Athens where he proceeded to criticize many cultural conventions of the Athens of that day. … He [Diogenes] became notorious for his philosophical stunts, such as carrying a lamp during the day, claiming to be looking for a man (often rendered in English as “looking for an honest man”)… Diogenes was captured by pirates and sold into slavery, eventually settling in Corinth. There he passed his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates, who taught it to Zeno of Citium, who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism…”
Left-leaning Wikipedia provides this statement on Stoicism: “the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual’s philosophy was not what a person said but how a person behaved.[2]” [Bold emphasis added by MHProNews.]
Three takeaways to that start for this report and analysis that make it relevant for those in manufactured housing or Americans in general.
- Centuries before the inflation of paper (or now digital) currencies, debasing coins was a historic forerunner of this practice. When the value of coins as currency was based upon the perceived intrinsic value of the metal, “shaving” the coin (removing some of its content while trying to make it look similar to how it did before) is what debasing it often involved. Debasing or shaving coins was a form of cheating or defrauding those who may accept it at ‘face value,’ thinking the currency was still worth X when it was actually worse X – minus the loss of its reduced content in gold, silver, or other valued metals.
- Some 2300 years before manufactured housing success story Martin “Marty” Lavin, J.D., observed that “Pay more attention to what people do than what they say,” Diogenes (himself allegedly a cheat through debasing coinage/currency) and the Greek Stoics thinkers believed that behavior was the best indicator of virtue than mere words. That observation doesn’t diminish Lavin’s insight, rather it reveals that Lavin is an informed and thoughtful professional who thinks objectively or ‘critically’ based upon behavior or ‘history.’
- The history of a person, profession, party, nation, religion, etc. is useful because anything that has happened before can occur again, and what has happened previously explains the current state of affairs. To grasp the status quo, historical clarity is necessary. Learning lessons from authentic history are thus a way to benefit from previous experiences to correct or avoid problems that may now exist.
Given that inflation is deemed per several polls to be the issue of most concern at this time in the U.S.A., that quick backdrop will prove useful to the content that will follow below. Inflation and interest rates (which are also impacted by inflation) are important components to housing affordability, or the lack of housing affordability.
Before proceeding, as a disclosure, Manufactured Home Pro News (MHProNews) entered into agreements with various publishers that allow us to republish their content that we alone select given certain qualifications.
Those other publishers include digital platforms that include informed, albeit sometimes controversial leaders and writers, that lean both left and right, and include Democrats, Republicans, Independents and those from ‘minor’ parties. Among those platforms is WND.com, which recently celebrated their 25th anniversary of online publishing.
This article opened with a quote from a leftist Democratic House Majority leader and will next provide insights from an editorial by Joseph Farah, WND’s founder and publisher (leans right). Farah’s historic “four quotes” will be ensued by a classic quotation that has been used by Democratic and Republican candidates.
That will be followed by insights from the co-founder of MHProNews, who has some 30 years’ experience in several segments of manufactured housing, some 3 years in RVs and the campground profession, often with award winning and record setting results. Additionally, this writer has served in financial services, consulting, management, marketing, and sales leadership capacities in manufactured housing, RVs, and other arenas that included trade shows, notably those in the manufactured housing industry. Numerous awards and recognitions have been earned, including inclusion in two “Who’s Who” style publications, federal and Congressional reports, the National Association of Realtors, the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI – who this writer later parted ways from), the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR), references in several mainstream media reports, university level academic papers, and a variety of op-eds. Those closing thoughts from this writer will provide additional insights that focus on issues that impact our profession, but which apply to several aspects of living in general.
With that brief backdrop and as noted above, next up is the following from the “4 Quotes” provided by the WND NewsCenter to MHProNews. You don’t have to agree with every aspect of what follows in order to benefit from several of the keen insights from veteran editor and publisher Farah. It will be followed by an additional famous quotation used by Democrats, Republicans, Independents and others – plus more facts, insights, and commentary supplied by MHProNews. The takeaways and usefulness of this information may prove useful to informing colleagues, yourself, or people in your circle of influence as well as to help you prepare for what’s ahead.
That preparation can make the difference between profits or losses and other career or business impacting decision making.
BETWEEN THE LINES
4 quotes that explain America’s loss of liberty
…
By Joseph Farah Published June 17, 2022 at 7:47pm
It hangs, literally, by a thread.
Four historical quotes come to mind about the fragility of free societies, free elections and free people.
Quote No. 1 – Josef Stalin: “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.”
While you will find some people who dispute the accuracy and authenticity of this statement, it rings with truth. And, for that reason, it’s critical Americans don’t forget the lesson it offers those of us who live in the nation most responsible for the concept of putting the power in the hands of the people. That’s why vote fraud, in all its many forms, must remain on the minds of freedom-minded Americans before we participate in another national election. Do we believe vote fraud was a factor in the 2020 election? Do we believe identification of voters is an essential component of free and fair elections? Do we believe candidates for federal office should be severely punished – or even disqualified – for knowingly taking foreign contributions? Do we believe there should be independent enforcement authorities for preventing and punishing those who cast fraudulent votes and for those who encourage and facilitate them? Do we believe the constitutional standards of eligibility for candidates and voters should be enforced? If we do, what are you going to do about it?
TRENDING: It seems black Americans miss Trump
Quote No. 2 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild: “Give me control of a nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes the laws.”
Remember the Tea Party of 2010? It’s a fact that Americans voted to get control of America’s money supply and government spending. Stunned by skyrocketing debt, they turned out many entrenched members of Congress in favor of those promising to do something about it. We saw something similar in the election of 2014 and again in 2016. But we got severely sidetracked by a pandemic that changed the way we voted. The Federal Reserve was not audited. The record borrowing continued unabated with the approval of the overwhelming majority of members of Congress of both parties. Who controls the money supply in America today? The big bankers. Congress long ago abdicated its authority. It’s time finally to elect a Congress that will take it back, or America will cease to be a nation under the rule of law and governed by the will of the people.
Quote No. 3 – Mao Zedong: “All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The Communist Party must command all the guns; that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.”
The U.S. government, cheered on by Big Tech and a lapdog media, seizes every opportunity to violate the second component of the Bill of Rights to establish, in the long run, a monopoly on armed force for the governing class in Washington. This is a necessary condition before tyranny can be imposed on the people. History records it was done in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China and every other totalitarian police state and that each of those actions led inevitably to holocausts of unimaginable size and scope. Meanwhile, the First Amendment is on life support – or worse.
Quote No. 4 – Bill Clinton: “When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly. … When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it.”
This last one summarizes all the major threats we face as a nation. Will we choose liberty? Or will we choose tyranny? Will we choose the false promise of “safety and security”? Or will we choose the freedom that comes with self-governance, self-determination, individual liberty and responsibility? Will we as a people be accountable to God? Or will we make ourselves accountable only to the false god of unlimited government?
This year, Americans became familiar with the term “Disinformation Governance Board.”
Finally, we have reached Orwell’s “1984.”
All of which is to say, we are in real trouble as a nation. …##
…the balance of the full opinion column by Farah is linked here. MHProNews hereby encourages you to read and consider it.
Editorial note: while the infamous quotation attributed to Soviet Communist leader Joseph Stalin is accurate, it should not be construed as a reason not to vote. The ideal response is for motivated citizens to do their part to insure that voting and ballot access as the counting of votes are fair and accurate.
To that point, MHProNews was invited to attend a voter integrity conference earlier this year (2022). The panel of presenters offered revealing insights into efforts occurring nationwide to increasingly insure that the concerns raised in the 2020 or prior elections are avoided. Among those presenting where those involved in the 2021 voter integrity campaign that resulted in a historic win in the Democratic ‘blue’ state of Virginia by now Governor Glen Younkin (R) and the first female black in VA, Lt. Governor Winsome Sears (R).
A key takeaway from that conference is that voter integrity efforts are proven to work when they are followed.
As with all civil and religious liberties, they are retained only so long as there is ongoing vigilance. AMAC (which is not limited to seniors) and TrueTheVote.org were among the groups involved in those voter integrity efforts. Those experts said that while poll watching is obviously important, voter integrity is ideally a year-round endeavor for some volunteers.
Which leads us to the next promised quotation.
Additional Quote and Related Information, More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
“The system is rigged.” That statement has been used by Senators Bernie Sanders (VT- Independent Democratic Socialist who caucuses with Democrats) and Elizabeth Warren (MA-D), both of whom campaigned for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in the 2020 election cycle. It has been used by billionaire Thomas “Tom” Fahr Steyer. Steyer made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, who is a Democratic party mega-donor. While he is known as a supporter of environmental causes, “Critics say Steyer made his fortune, in part, from fossil fuels – the very energy source he now condemns – while he was a hedge fund manager at Farallon Capital Management, a firm he founded,” per a Fox News report in 2015. So, with Diogenes, the Stoics, and Marty Lavin in mind, the principle should be: pay more attention to what Steyer did for years to earn his money than to what he now preaches after he became a billionaire.
“The system is rigged” statement has been used several times by Donald J. Trump (billionaire, 45th President of the United States – POTUS – deposed in the questioned 2020 election cycle by former Democratic Senator from Delaware and former Vice President to President Barack Obama, Joe Biden.
Millions from across the political spectrum believe that the system in the U.S. is rigged. There are those in other countries who think their system is rigged too.
But if the system is rigged, how is it rigged? How can it be unrigged? It is worth noting that Sanders and Trump, certainly far apart on the political spectrum, have both pointed to the concentration of mainstream news information in the hands of a relatively few conglomerates.
Truth is established by evidence, not whim or desire. Something can be true even if it was said by someone who holds a belief quite different from your own thinking.
One of the problems in our nation today is that fundamental notions about reality – the basics – that used to be rather commonly taught in schools have since been eroded.
As was noted above, according to several recent polls, the top issue in the United States today is inflation. What is commonly called inflation is the result of the money supply being artificially ‘inflated’ by more fiat currency. Restated for U.S. readers, increasing the supply of fiat currency – digital or paper money not backed by gold, silver, or some tangible goods that have intrinsic value – is a devaluation of the dollar.
Thus, what occurred in 2021 in terms of vast sums of ‘new’ money being created by the Fed and legislation was guaranteed to result in the inflation that is recognized today. For longtime readers of the MHProNews Daily Business News market report, recall that this publication foreshadowed the coming inflation issue. How was that accomplished? No crystal ball was needed. All that was necessary was a knowledge of some basics in history and basic principles in economics and money.
To Clyburn’s point about the value of the lessons of history, it is a basic truth that inflating the money supply has resulted in economic hardships later. It is an a-political observation that the Biden Administration blaming others for inflation is therefor a dodge that hopes to avoid accountability in the upcoming election.
Voters should not let those who inflated the money supply get away with it.
There are signs from special elections like that of Mayra Nohemi Flores that change is coming to U.S. politics. Flores is an American health practitioner with a border agent spouse who became the representative-elect for Texas’s 34th congressional district in June 2022. Flores is the first Mexican born woman to win that seat. She came to the U.S. legally. Per Texas Monthly, Flores is the “first Republican in the U.S. House from the Rio Grande Valley since 1871.”
But “change” for its own sake isn’t enough.
Americans should be fed up with the sometimes-wild swings in U.S. politics. Our system of government is supposed to provide stability, and instability. Part of the reason that our system has been corrupted or ‘rigged’ is because the constitution which Farah quoted former President Bill Clinton (D) cited above has been twisted away from its intended meaning.
The meaning of the words of the U.S. Constitution, or that of any law worthy of its name, don’t change with the passage of time.
The Bill of Rights, for example, should mean the same today as when they were first ratified on December 15, 1791, per Archives.gov. If the meaning of a law can be changed by whim, fashion, and the passage of some time, then there is no reasonable means for such a law to be enforced.
Words have meaning. Laws use words. The original meaning of a law and the intent of lawmakers at the time of enactment are an ancient test used by courts to settle disputes.
The Principle of Cause and Effect
Once certain facts – like the reality of gravity – are known, the principle of cause and effect can be applied. Humans are not able to survive a fall onto solid ground beyond a certain altitude. So, if someone is shoved or jumps from an airplane, cliff, or building from 1000 feet above solid ground and no safety equipment (like a parachute or netting) is present, that individual will die. The effect of that jump or fall is the cause of that death. It is entirely predictable.
1+1 in mathematics is also 2. It is never anything else.
There are many such principles and factual insights that people ought to learn in their youth while they are being educated. According to the King Institute: “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.” So said Martin Luther King Jr.
The term ‘critical’ has multiple meanings. While Diogenes was a slippery fellow, he was not wrong in probing the questions and thinking of his day. Oxford Languages states these two definitions for the word “critical:”
- expressing adverse or disapproving comments or judgments.
- expressing or involving an analysis of the merits and faults of a work of literature, music, or art.
- When Dr. King made that statement about thinking critically, his intention was the second meaning, i.e.: “involving an analysis of the merits and faults of a work of literature, music, or art.”
The case can and has been made that in business and politics, besides the truth and outright lies there is a muddy middle ground that is sometimes deliberately used known as “paltering.”
According to left-leaning Wikipedia: “Paltering is the active use of selective truthful statements to mislead. The term as applied in psychology and mediation studies was developed by researchers at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in the late 2000s. The first known use of palter to describe acting insincerely or deceitfully was in the 1580s.” While the definition is sound, in ‘critical’ – meaning analytical – thought, that last sentence is demonstrably wrong. The first known example of paltering was by the devilish serpent in the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The serpent told a half-truth as part of his deception to get Adam and Eve to violate the one command that God gave them: do not eat the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden (Genesis 3:3).
In the case of someone listening or reading the thoughts of another person that is not known, it might be difficult to tell the difference between an apparently honest statement or paltering.
That’s the reason that deceivers use paltering, because it may be mistaken for the truth, because part of the statement IS accurate. But knowing that paltering is an issue in our society, it is up to the listener or reader to discern – to think critically or analytically – about some statement or claim. Everyone can make an ‘honest’ mistake. But once someone is known to hold to a pattern of dishonesty, paltering, or it opposite – truth-telling – then it becomes easier to discern or rely upon a given source’s words.
While there are political consequences from it, it is not a partisan statement to say that Joseph Robinette “Joe” Biden had an extensive history of purportedly:
- falsifying information,
- plagiarizing others,
- and apparent corruption evidenced by the number of homes and wealth he amassed while he has ‘served’ as the Senator from Delaware or as VP to President Barack Obama (D).
- It should have been no surprise that he has told some tall tales on his way into the White House, and has told others since. But in fairness, that is not to say that everything he says or does has been deceptive. He was quite direct on several occasions when he said that he would shut down the Keystone Pipeline, and would push the country toward ‘green energy’ in part by making fossil fuels ever more expensive to use. While this isn’t the only cause of rising prices, it has been a factor.
Given Biden’s history, what he said should have been considered in the light of the principle of “Pay more attention to what people do than what they say.”
According to Edelman research, over half of the U.S. population ‘gets it’ that business and political leaders are often deceptive. That part is okay.
But that data also means that over 40 percent of the population are apparently more subject to being deceived if they blindly trust politicians and business leaders.
It is precisely because sizable numbers of people – out of habit, propaganda, being too trusting, false hope that an appealing – but implausible ‘promise’ might be true, or otherwise being manipulated leads to votes for candidates who do not deserve them.
A range of motivations can lead to someone being deceived by tactics like paltering that business and political reasons use. Awareness of the problem is the first stage of defense against it.
Success or Failure? Profit or Loss?
Some people have been conditioned to be triggered by the mere mention of a name or phrase. This is the outcome of a gross form of manipulation. That manipulation may take place in the political arena, but it obviously impacts businesses, careers, religion, spirituality, health, and other life-choices.
Additionally, habit, ego, or various types of manipulation can cause even intelligent people to error in discernment.
The fact that America has problem areas doesn’t mean that the U.S.A. is lacking in many good points.
Similarly, the fact that America has several good points doesn’t mean that there aren’t problem areas that need to be navigated or changed for the better as much as is possible.
It is ill-informed or perhaps even foolish to think that there will ever be a ‘utopia’ on this earth. Those who peddle promises of a utopian future should therefore not be trusted.
The only time idyllic conditions ever existed historically was in the Garden of Eden, per the Bible. That period of graced and ‘carefree’ living was prior to the temptation and ‘fall’ of humanity after the devilish serpent’s deception. Humans have free will, which you and all people prove every day by making a choice to do one thing instead of something else.
Promises of a ‘socialist’ utopia – no matter how sincere – are always a matter of ignorance or deception. History tells us that socialism has often led to communism. Socialist and communist states have routinely led to scarcity of food or other necessities of life. Socialist Venezuela was once at or near the top of South America’s most prosperous nations. But that was before it went socialist. That doesn’t imply that Venezuela was perfect beforehand. But the Venezuelan people were essentially tricked into voting for something that didn’t work in Communist Cuba, the former Soviet Union (USSR – Union of Soviet Social Republics), Communist China, North Korea, or other lands where socialism and communism was ‘sold’ to enough of the people to allow tyrants to come to power.
The only way socialism or communism comes to power is through deception. That deception may include ‘paltering.’
When the fascist Nazi government of Adolf Hitler led Germany is considered (recall that Nazi means National Socialist) and other communist, socialist, or fascist governments are considered, the 20th century witnessed the loss of 100 million people due to the actions of ‘their own’ governments.
Even left-leaning Wikipedia says that according to “historian J. Arch Getty, over half of the 100 million deaths which are attributed to communism were due to famines.” The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) teaches these lessons, as does the Heritage Foundation and others.
But it is simplistic to stop with concerns about just socialists and communists, as bad as they have been. Not all fascists claimed to be socialists, though many were. Keep in mind the definition of facism used by the man who became Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Roanoke says Mussolini explained fascism like this: “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” CRF-USA.org [Constitutional Rights Foundation] notes that: “Unions, strikes, and other labor actions are [made] illegal” in the fascist state. As CRF-USA.org said: “This “third way” corporatism attempted to unify workers and employers by requiring them to set aside their private interests in favor of the best interests of the fascist state. In practice, however, the employers usually benefited more than the workers did.”
Do you know or are you an employee of a big company? Take note about those lessons of corporatism. Keep in mind that promises, promises may be made – and perhaps some might be kept – for a time. But as research has demonstrated, the more concentrated that corporate power becomes, the effective earning power of workers goes down.
Put differently, smaller businesses and protecting individual/personal liberties – such as Farah wrote about above – are a key to protecting the rights of all. Equality of outcomes can’t ever be guaranteed, no matter what socialists and communists promise. But equality of opportunity can be established and protected by law.
To the point that equality of outcomes aren’t guaranteed, look at the top leaders of Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, or Communist China. They often live a luxurious lifestyle. That’s not how socialism is ‘sold’ but that is the reality that emerges when it is carefully examined.
Much of what has occurred in the U.S., in Canada, Britain, or even Communist China could be better understood through the lens of fascist [Corporatism] style socialist/communist thinking and behavior. The few have the true say over what occurs in the society and may ‘unite’ under one ‘leader’ who may have a council of advisors.
Housing and Zoning in the U.S.
MHProNews and our MHLivingNews sister site have pointed out in recent years that the rate of home ownership in the U.S. is actually lower than some 40+ other nations. Those other countries routinely have a lower average personal income than is found in the U.S. While the causes for this are many, its reality is unquestionable. One factor is how zoning and land-use laws have operated in the U.S.
The left-leaning Biden White House was not wrong in tying the history of racism with zoning. In a June 17, 2021 post, the White House website said: “Because exclusionary zoning rules drive up housing prices, poorer families are kept out of wealthier, high-opportunity neighborhoods.”
The right-leaning Forbes said days later in an article entitled: “Zoning, Housing Regulation, And America’s Racial Inequality” that “America’s single family zoning policies have fed racially discriminatory housing outcomes.” Left-leaning Bloomberg noted on 1.4.2016 that “The economic segregation of metros is significantly higher in places where cities (not just suburbs) employ more stringent land use and density,” in an article entitled: “How Zoning Restrictions Make Segregation Worse.”
The Role of Manufactured Housing in Affordable Housing
By choking off affordable manufactured home placement through zoning and placement restrictions, it is often minorities as well as lower income whites that effectively suffer. The excuses that are used to justify such zoning restrictions have been debunked for well over a decade, as is evidenced by a variety of third-party nonprofit, federal, and university level research that included the Obama-Biden era research (2010) entitled: “Regulatory Barriers to Manufactured Housing Placement in Urban Communities.” Properly installed modern manufactured homes, it turns out, do not harm the value of conventional housing next door. Several cities were examined in that research, and the results were similar in each case.
But that isn’t the only such research that has occurred. Recently, LendingTree came to the conclusion that manufactured homes were appreciating in many states at a faster rate the conventional housing.
Congress was made aware of such insights over a decade earlier. As a result of the then-joint effort by the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) in conjunction with the then Will Earle, J.D., led Texas Manufactured Housing Association (TMHA), the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000 (MHIA or 2000 Reform Law) was enacted. MHARR had pressed for that for years, and when a change in leadership at MHI led to the joint effort with MHARR, the MHIA bill was rapidly passed.
Congress made it clear that the MHIA was at its core an affordable home ownership law. Under its “Findings and Purpose” (Title 42 – THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE CHAPTER 70 – MANUFACTURED HOME CONSTRUCTION AND SAFETY STANDARDS Sec. 5401 – Findings and purposes), GovInfo.gov states: [bold emphasis added]
Congress finds that—
(1) manufactured housing plays a vital role in meeting the housing needs of the Nation; and
(2) manufactured homes provide a significant resource for affordable homeownership and rental housing accessible to all Americans.”
New consumer protections were provided for zoning and placement. In exchange for new benefits for manufactured home consumers in a dispute resolution process not found in many forms of more costly conventional housing, the MHIA gave HUD the ability to exercise what became known as “enhanced preemption.” As Democratic lawmakers who were part of the bipartisan group that enacted the new law said to then HUD Secretary Mel Martinez, HUD was given the authority to preempt local zoning when manufactured housing was wrongfully zoned out.
The first administrator for HUD’s new Office of Manufactured Housing Programs (OMHP) that were established by the 2000 Reform Law, William “Bill” Matchneer, J.D. said, it was always his view that Congress obviously meant to strengthen the federal preemption provided in the original manufactured housing act of 1974.
While there have been some instances that Matchneer asserted that authority in writing to local jurisdictions, he told MHProNews in an exclusive statement that HUD’s Office of General Counsel routinely declined to act under the MHIA’s “enhanced preemption” authority.
This has been mentioned by MHI and MHARR alike. But what hasn’t happened is this. MHI has apparently avoided working closely with MHARR to litigate violations of the rights of would-be manufactured home buyers who want to own a manufactured home, but are being blocked by local zoning barriers. In part because MHI wasn’t acting, MHARR offered to team up with MHI state affiliates in possible legal action. Apparently under MHI influence, there were no takers, said MHARR. Note that the quote on the left side of the graphic, while accurate, is reflective of a tongue-in-cheek remark.
This historic review will draw to a close with some simple observations. MHARR has made their willingness to work with MHI on zoning, placement, financing, or the looming and costly DOE Energy Rule plain numerous times over the years. It is MHI who apparently has been the road-block to such a cooperative effort.
As MHProNews noted in the report linked below, MHI has demonstrated its ability to get media attention and access to political and policy leaders.
What MHI has not done is cooperate with MHARR in the same way that they did in the late 1990s, when the MHIA was enacted. Evidence of that earlier cooperation includes this document once posted on the MHI website, which was since ‘hidden.’
Some of this shift at MHI apparently occurred during the early days of what MHProNews has labeled the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) Era of Manufactured Housing. Once Warren Buffett led Berkshire acquired a stake in then bankrupt Oakwood Homes and then rolled it up under their next manufactured housing acquisition of Clayton Homes, an apparent pivot at MHI began to occur. Fast forward to today, and MHARR isn’t normally even mentioned by MHI, as if MHARR doesn’t exist.
By contrast, the MHARR website has pages of posts that mention MHI in some form or fashion.
This seemingly odd, childish, or agenda-driven behavior by MHI has proven costly and/or harmful to numerous manufactured home independents over the years. It is also part of the prima facie evidence that MHI, perhaps under the influence of Berkshire brands like Clayton Homes, 21st Mortgage Corporation, and Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance (VMF) – among others – has acted in concert with some other companies to slowly but steadily use their “castle and moat” methods to drive out and limit competition and thus steadily grow their respective market share in manufactured housing.
This is an apparent example of corporatism or the “Iron Triangle” at work in the U.S.A. today. It is also an apparent example of what Minneapolis Federal Reserve researchers have called “sabotaging monopoly” tactics.
It is no surprise that Berkshire Hathaway won’t comment on these serious antitrust allegations that involve not only Clayton Homes, 21st and other BRK brands, but also MHI.
When MHI’s apparent failure to use their legal resources to force the proper enforcement of good laws are considered, this history has to be part of the discussion in manufactured housing.
And as this review of the big picture steadily narrowed in the course of this article evidence, the paltering and other tactics used at the national level are apparently being deployed in manufactured housing too.
An open question is this. Will some at MHI raise these or other pressing issues publicly? Or will fear, habits, ego, or buying into apparently false narratives and “paltering” cause the status quo to continue? Because absent change, a new and costly crisis that would prove harmful to affordable housing consumers, industry independents, and taxpayers appears to be looming for the manufactured home industry.
The lessons of history are many. But this historic review presents a look through the proverbial microscope, periscope, as well as the telescope with respect to what is occurring in the U.S. and what is occurring in manufactured housing.
Pay more attention to what people or organization do than what they say. ##
Again, our thanks to you, our sources, and sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) (See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position, and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
The text/image boxes below are linked to other reports, which can be accessed by clicking on them.
