It’s the 3rd of July, 2018. 242 years have elapsed since the founding fathers singed the Declaration of Independence. 242 years later, there are voices and forces that are making promises like free education, $15 minimum wage, “affordable” subsidized rental housing, and are openly proclaiming a socialist agenda. The problem is, decades of experience proves socialism is the opposite of liberty in practice.
A wheat and chaff approach must be applied to every person, concept, and every organization.
There are no perfect people walking the earth today. Even those who are serious, scholarly believers in God would admit that only a handful of those born could claim to be sinless. So, the majority by definition, including this Daily Business News writer, are a mixed bag. So a discerning separating the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff is necessary.
Housing, Freedom and The War for American Independence
In 1938, the Army’s manual used to have a section that said that a democracy would end up in mob rule. Needless to say, that part of the Army manual today is long gone.
A republic is a hybrid.
A republic includes representative rule, established by the will of citizen/voters. But it is also about the rule of law, defined by a power-limiting constitution. The Latin root of the word republic is “res publica,” meaning the “public’s things.” A republic depends on an informed public, that is motivated to understand freedom, and what keeps them free.
Writing in Capitalism Magazine, Alexander Marriott said this:
“What is a republic? What is a democracy? And why am I so angered that people use the words interchangeably? I’ll answer the last question first. It is illogical to use two words that mean two different things to mean the same thing. This would be like me using the words orange and apple to mean the same physical object. I would be derided as an idiot and rightly so. This situation is the same in principle to the republic/democracy problem, but the importance of the orange and apple comparison is infinitely smaller.
A republic is a government in which a restricted group of citizens form a political unit, usually under the auspice of a charter, which directs them to elect representatives who will govern the state. Republics, by their very nature, tend to be free polities, not because they are elected by the citizens of the polity, but because they are bound by charters, which limit the responsibilities and powers of the state. The fact that people vote for representatives has nothing to do with making anything free. The logical consistency and rationality of the charter, as well as the willingness of the people to live by it, is what keeps people free.
A democracy is government by the majority. There is still a restricted group of citizens in a democracy, but this group rules directly and personally runs the state. The group may delegate specific tasks to individuals, such as generalships and governorships, but there is no question that the ruling force in a democracy is not a charter (if there even is a charter), but the vote of the majority. Democracies are free only if the people know what freedom is and are consistent in their application of it. If they don’t know this, or more appropriately, if a majority of the people don’t know this, then a democracy could be just as tyrannical as the worst dictator (see Socrates’ forced suicide by the Athenian democracy.)”
The oldest trick in the book is the ‘bait and switch.’ There are those who want us to switch our constitutional republic and it’s liberties for a democracy.
Oldest trick? Think about it.
The serpent in the garden promised Adam and Eve that they could be like God if they violated the one rule – one law – that the Creator gave them, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.” (Genesis 3:3, Bible Hub).
The slippery serpent – a.k.a. the devil – used a half-truth, spin, the old bait and switch. The deceiver said, in Genesis 3:4-5 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Bible Gateway).
There are outright lies, but also half-truths that are told, to tempt people away from the very things that can make them free. That Satanic trick was a half-truth, because the ‘children of God’ were already made in the Creator’s image. With a garden full of fruits and food, they were tricked by a false promise to give up all that they already had. What happened in the beginning, is a variation of what is happening still today.
Ben Franklin didn’t know the future. But Franklin and the founders were students of human nature, and of history.
The founders didn’t all share the same beliefs, but they understood and shared enough in common to forge a consensus that made the Declaration of Independence possible. Years later, after the Revolution had succeeded, the founders forged the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
A person could be an atheist or agnostic, and could still embrace the principles in our Republic’s founding documents. But founder John Adams, who like Franklin studied human nature and history, said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” (BrainyQuotes).
In his Farewell Address, President George Washington said, “…Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
There are openly socialistic voices promising rental housing that will be affordable with subsidies. It’s a lie, or at best, a half-truth. After 50 years of the Great Society programs, the nation needs some 7.7 million affordable rentals, says the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). What that means is that however well meaning the NLIHC supporters may be, the solution is obviously not more of the thinking and behaviors that created the current housing and poverty deficits.
HUD Code manufactured homes, and pre-HUD Code mobile homes were and are a free market solution to the affordable housing crisis. One of manufactured housing’s (MH) prime competitor isn’t conventional housing as much as it is subsidized housing.
The industry’s professionals and investors must recognize that those who created the big, bloated government system found in Washington, D.C. are fighting a multi-tentacled monster. But it can be boiled down to a simple principle. The federal government overstepped its bounds. That overreach allowed special interests to manipulate the system to the advantage of a few, at great harm to the many.
50 years of Great Society experiments have resulted in some $22 Trillion in spending, said the Heritage Society in 2014. But poverty levels remain the same. Imagine, that $22 Trillion is almost the same as the federal debt. Continuing policies that don’t work is a reminder of what Albert Einstein quipped, to keep doing the same things, the same way is a form of insanity.
To avoid riots, the current system must be repealed in stages. Linked reports can be read later for greater depth of understanding.
Housing, Jobs, Poverty, Opportunity – Kerner Commission Remix, HUD and Manufactured Homes
No single article or even book can cover every issue. But when some person or some organization is leaving out key concepts that are necessary for freedom and prosperity, the half-truth or outright lies and their sources are to be noted and avoided by intelligent, freedom loving souls.
Our industry is necessary, as HUD Secretary Ben Carson has said. Carson has stated his goal of reforming HUD as it has run for decades. Our industry’s professionals must give him and the administration the support needed to make that goal a reality.
Doing so would result in millions of new HUD Code and other forms of housing sales, not through favoritism or crony capitalism, but rather by applying the law, and allowing the free market to reign.
There is plenty of motivation to do the right things.
Wheat and Chaff
None of those quoted below might have thought when they penned their words that they would be referenced here today. They and we might agree on some things, disagree on others. The principle of the wheat and chaff must be applied.
But consider these quotes from industry professionals, and think about how they matter with regards to our freedom as a nation.
“It’s my personal opinion that they we have incrementally given up every bit of financial freedom we have lost. Dodd Frank was a big increment along with Obamacare,” manufactured home industry veteran retailer, and prior Texas Manufactured Housing Association Chairman, Lance Inderman said to MHProNews.
Inderman also said in a message for publication that, “I started at the bottom working for minimum wage washing dishes, flipping burgers, mopping floors and learning how to deal with the public. I have become successful because of hard work, perseverance and delayed gratification.”
“People that produce wealth in the private sector despise government and its tax arm while the wealthy that deal in the public sector despise the true private sector that refuses to be enslaved by government contracts and connections because they don’t know how to do it,” Inderman said.
Industry Voices
Importance for Businesses, Investors in Manufactured Housing for Selecting the Next Supreme Court Justice, Kurt Kelley, JD, attorney, The Woodlands, TX, Mobile Agency, Manufactured Housing Review, MHR, Industry Voices, Manufactured Home MHProNews,
This writer has never asked, but you can bet that Kelley and Inderman both have a good sense of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the highlights of our Republic’s history.
The same bet can be made about the next MH industry success story.
“The economic talking heads making their living on Wall Street or Washington, D.C. care little about American workers displaced for years. Deplorables! Now the economic bigshots lament the possible trade war with China because it threatens their stew, citing the loss of cheap goods for us to buy. Where were these folks all those years as hard working Americans were thrown from their jobs, in places like Buffalo, Detroit and Youngstown, all dead cities. You know, “free” trade is a must, for the elites.” Marty Lavin, JD., award winning manufactured home finance, communities and retail veteran.
It is Lavin who has said “Follow the Money,” and “Pay more attention to what people do than what they say.” But think about the below in terms of subsidized housing.
Students of human nature and history know the bait and switch, and the techniques of the half-truth or repeated big lies.
The Wheat and Chaff principle must be applied to the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) too. There are several who believe, as Lavin does, that they work for the interests of the “big boys.” But even a stopped click is right twice a day. MHI’s allegedly Rigged System did produce an interesting video, shown below as an example of useful wheat from amidst their debatable chaff.
We could parse how or why this MHI video was done, but let’s let the wheat from the message of HUD Secretary Ben Carson stand on its own merits.
The nation is at a crossroads. Freedom is never free. Economic liberty isn’t to be stolen by one group from another. Theft by the manipulation of government power is not morally superior to theft by an armed robber.
God’s Ten Commandments protected private property, and protected the truth.
The Liberty Bell bears the following words, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” from Leviticus 25:10, says U.S. History.
- Freedom requires truth.
- Freedom requires knowledge and understanding.
- Freedom is predicated upon eternal moral principles.
- Freedom requires sacrifice.
Whenever facts are being manipulated, it may be a signal that there either ignorance or an effort to manipulate people. That manipulation is often grounded in a desire to separate citizens from their God-given rights, and/or their money.
“The business of America is business,” said President Calvin Coolidge. For business to prosper, taxes and regulations must be low, fair, moral, and impartial.
Whatever the personal weaknesses of the current president, the truth is we all have a weakness. The wheat and chaff principle applies to us all. That said, this administration is arguably doing more to restore the American Dream than any president since Ronald Reagan.
As the annual reminder of the 4th of July’s meaning is upon us, this is an apt time to reflect on how vital it is that a candle should be lit to fight the darkness some are spreading.
Subsidized housing is an under appreciated root problem. Subsidized housing is proven to be unable to meet the nation’s needs after decades of failed efforts. Subsidized housing traps people, as the Rev. Donald Tye noted.
Economic, person, spiritual, or political freedom are never free.
There is always a cost, always a sacrifice.
But the cost is worth the price. The price is better than the alternatives. “We Provide, You Decide.” ## (News, commentary, and analysis.)
(Third party images, and content are provided under fair use guidelines.)
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – Masthead commentary, for MHProNews.com.
Tony is the multiple award-winning managing member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
Office 863-213-4090 |Connect on LinkedIn:
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