Let’s look at a pattern that is hiding in plain sight. This pattern has and is being used to disrupt the manufactured housing industry.
If we as professionals fail to define ourselves and our operation(s), then others will define us – often to our disadvantage.
Let’s consider recent examples.
There are a growing number of operations and groups that are akin to MHAction, which recently teamed up with left-of-center activists to undermine private equity’s role in manufactured home (MH) communities.
On the West Coast, another activist group recently worked to pass Measure V in California.
NPR’s All Things Considered ‘report’ (actually, Todd Lamb is right, it’s thinly disguised advocacy) by Daniel Zwerdling, entitled “Mobile Home Park Owners Can Spoil An Affordable American Dream” is another example of media being used to target manufactured housing, in that case, communities.
But in 2015 and 2016, it was the Seattle Times – which frequently acted in concert with others like the Center for Public Integrity and BuzzFeed News – to attack industry giant Clayton Homes and their sister operations in MH lending.
The Common Thread?
These activist groups have common threads, and Tim Williams of 21st Mortgage described that in a power point he gave MHProNews permission to share – but we’ll save that slide for another time, while making his key point.
Namely, that these self-described progressive groups have an agenda.
Those so-called progressives are often harming the very people they claim to help.
But they are so passionate – so dedicated to their cause and beliefs – that they simply never, never quit.
While some can be reasoned with, for others, the facts don’t matter to them, especially when the facts go counter to their beliefs.
Progressives claim to champion the poor and downtrodden, but in fact it’s often Big Government and Big Foundations that supply them with the money they need to do their activist work.
They’ve learned to utilize quite successfully local and Big Media to carry their messages.
And for years – decades – manufactured housing has taken it on the chin. The easy way of not responding effectively is the hard and painful way. Or as Sunshine Homes President John Bostick colorfully likes to say, “Easy doesn’t pay well.”
Fool Me Once…
There is an old saying. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
As professionals, we must be honest with each other. Manufactured housing professionals keep getting sucker punched.
There is a strong sentiment in the industry that somehow companies or associations that are attacked must often avoid publicly debating or defending our position effectively with the groups and media in question.
But There’s More…
CFPB
HUD
DOE
Add to these disruptive anti-MH business activist groups and their allies in media, a veritable alphabet soup of federal, state and local agencies, which in recent years have swamped the ability of small businesses to enter, stay effectively or be as profitable as they would otherwise be in the marketplace.
That in turn hurts job creation, and costs every level of government tax revenues. It also causes increased expenses by government, costs that could have been avoided in the absence of anti-business policies.
As is linked above and here again, federal dollars have gone to groups such as CFED, which in turn lobby media, federal, state or other entities in ways that may be well-intentioned, but in fact promote “solutions” that often (though not always) may be impractical or worse.
He Went to Prison, But He Had a Point
James Watt, President Ronald Reagan’s U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1981 to 1983, made an interesting observation. He said that he didn’t believe in conspiracies most of the time. What Watt did witness and believe in was people with common beliefs acting on those common beliefs in a way that may have looked conspiratorial.
But the result is almost the same.
Be it done cloak-and-dagger in smoke-filled rooms by design, or because people with common beliefs behave in common ways, they are de facto working in concert.
Paul Bradley told MHProNews a few years ago, that manufactured housing lacked cohesion. Bradley was spot on then, and now.
IMHO, there are too many petty rivalries and turf-wars that harm all in the industry mix, because they limit what SSK’s Nathan Smith called our “boutique industry,” keeping it from reaching its full potential.
Reflection Should Lead First to Understanding…
Many in the center-right may believe that the left dominates in numbers, but that’s not true – nor has it ever been accurate.
Here’s proof.
The dominance of leftist thinking in:
- academia (universities are often an arm of government),
- the media and
- in government results in what looks like an overwhelming majority.
In fact, it’s a minority that is influencing, manipulating, and controlling the center-right majority.
If you missed these two recent Masthead posts below, please find the time to review – because we are building on a series of principles, facts and realities that must be understood and acted upon for manufactured housing to achieve its potential.
Reflection and Understanding should then lead to sound plans and action.
MHAction is just one of several operations that target manufactured housing professionals. Make no mistake, in an industry of our size – an attack on one sector sadly – and avoidably – impacts and disrupts every part of our industry and profession.
Let me encourage Masthead readers to check out Paul Bradley, Todd Lamb, Kurt Kelley and Tim Williams‘ recent, thoughtful comments on the NPR related issue.
Also, look again at Congressman Dennis Ross’ statement on Dr. Ben Carson for the role of HUD Secretary.
Kindly check back here this weekend, when the new issue and our January 2017 featured articles will be live on the MHProNews.com home page – ready to feed your mind – so that you and others can serve more, better – and thus boost your bottom line. ##
(Image credits are as shown above.)
