We’re in a nation and world living in critical times. Ensconced in the cocoon of our big screens, tablets, smart watches, phones and social distractions, images of millions of refugees from the Middle East may seem as surreal as a Dali painting.
The moorings of our nation’s constitution were slipped years ago. We awakened to a president who proclaims he’ll act with a pen and phone. The Supreme Court claims authority to redefine marriage against the will of the majority, thousands of years of history and the normal tenants of judicial interpretation.
The House Speaker has stepped down the day after a historical address of Congress by Pope Francis. Having blown past 18 trillion dollars, the House and Senate faces a new debt ceiling. The budget – or more likely, a CR – must still be passed. The southern border remains a porous political football. And Clayton Homes builds a 3D printed solar concept house in conjunction with ORNL.
For good and ill, there is simply too much for millions of people to track and follow, much less digest and truly understand.
The Renter’s Nation is not the American Dream of yore. No wonder people are getting stoned on pot 20x stronger than when Jeb Bush smoked it 40 years ago.
Heroin is killing hundreds in cities and small towns across the nation. Reports reveal that Mexican cartel coyotes are leading illegals across the border, using the young and adults as mules to carry drugs to America’s streets. That leads to more crime. Ann Coulter shrilled her message as she shills her book — ¡Adios, America!
The Donald Trumpets the immigration issue too. Dr. Ben Carson takes the NBC bait and opines on not voting for a hypothetical Muslim for president. Bernie Sanders and as yet unannounced VP Joe Biden virtually equal the once ‘invincible’ Hillary Clinton in polling. A billionaire Democratic donor joins the growing chorus on the political left calling for more DNC debates, as H-> is apparently caught in the latest misstatement about those private-and-public emails on a personal, unsecured server.
Of course Black Lives Matter, but why did Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley feel the need to apologize that all lives matter, regardless of race, color or creed? Cops are executed on city streets, as crime and murders are rising in major metros.
As unrest spreads in the cities, will more start moving to the Exurbs? Matthew Silver’s report on a study Rural Living – Returning to Exurban America we published already says as much.
National and Global Turmoil
Russia has jet fighters now in Syria, armed with air-to-air missiles. Vladimir Putin says they will prop-up the Assad regime, which President Barak Obama once vowed must end. The Russians have buzzed our borders with long-range bombers for months. ChiComs recently sent warships near Alaska, they too have buzzed our warplanes, as they build a military base in islands in the South China Seas shipping lanes, sending fear across the Western Pacific rim. While their regime is promising to reduce the dirtiest global emissions on the planet, via surrogates they hack our computers. The Chinese are stealing our technology and jobs, while manipulating their currency to prop up their sliding stock markets.
Few even mention that Putin’s Russia stole Crimea from the Ukraine, while the civil war they’ve fostered aims to reclaim that entire land. ISIS made even Turkey so nervous, they’re now toe-in-the-water on the conflicts that are deluging Europe with the most refugees since WWII. Russia and Iran are ever more openly cooperating with each other. The NATO alliance is being tested as never before.
Yet, the pen and phone wielding POTUS will reward Tehran with nearly $150 billion in a deal that makes no sense to some 2/3rds of all Americans, an agreement many Gulf States and Israel strongly or quietly oppose. We spent trillions in war in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia rewards us by depressing oil prices to harm U.S. oil producers. No wonder most Americans are frustrated with DC politics and American policies, foreign and domestic.
No wonder underdogs and outsiders in both major parties are getting such a good look vis-à-vis the insiders and establishment candidates.
We need a combination of Solomon and Braveheart for our next president. We need solution oriented citizen-officials in Congress, and SCOTUS justices that want to enforce the law, not create or protect laws that violate the separation of powers and the original federal/state balance of authority.
Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing, S 682, On Hold…
With all the battles in the Congress looming, our MH bill, S 682 is on hold; part of a larger bill possibly poised for fall Senate passage. The Marty Lavin video interview on that topic is doing well.
Manufactured Home Personal Property Loans – Are They Predatory?
Are CFPB Regulations Helping or Harming Consumers and Home Owners?
Yes, our MH lenders and the MH industry are harmed by CFPB regulations.
But a lender told me privately – that while negatively impacted – arguably far more harmed than MH lenders are the 4 estimated million living in
1.7 million pre-HUD code mobile homes and post-HUD Code Manufactured Homes valued under $20,000. Independent MH businesses, the lender suggested, are more harmed by the CFPB regulations too. What happened to limited federal government? What’s happened to leaving most matters to the states?
Yes, HR 650 is thankfully passed by a healthy margin. But publicly today, who beyond our twin publications and a relative few in MH are crying out for those millions?
MH Industry Threats at Home and Abroad
Never forget that China claims to be shipping MODs for housing to dozens of nations. Don’t think for a second that they, Japan, or a firm like IKEA couldn’t turn our domestic factory-built home industry upside down within a year if they made that commitment.
Yes, the world’s a mess. We can’t ignore it, nor should we ignore our business and consumers. This is why we’ve pushed, pleaded and prodded that MH must rise to its potential, or remain vulnerable.
MH Enemies, Friends and Mainstream TV Ads
There is an odd dance of sorts taking place between industry players, from bases such as Arlington and Indy. An industry insider told me the following, off the record:
“Isn’t it amazing how many thousands of peoples’ lives in this industry have been upended
by the unwillingness of so few people to get along?”
Now, a retired vet who was unofficially (allegedly) declared persona-non-grata about 2 years ago, this year finds 3 representatives of that same group at his event of a few weeks ago. What message does that send to others who want to be part of the solution for the industry? What message does that send to those who want to stir the pot, but so far, have not?
Another retired (really?) leader is said to hope to knit together a coalition of a loose business alliance to challenge the association status quo, seen as being lead by MHI. In conjunction with that new national association plan, there is talk of their creating a national campaign for MH.
It’s ironic how on multiple fronts, one group is walking right into another’s apparent snare, while dancing with the very one who is part of the alleged plot against their interests.
It’s been suggested by a well-placed source that one side is thinking, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” How ironic! The other side is thinking the same thing. Both want to manipulate and use the other.
Far better to settle the issues, if possible. If that’s not possible, then do what ever is fair and just for the many. We as an industry will advance when the common good and the various talents and skills the many have are brought to the table, thus bridging the various gaps and yielding profitable solutions.
Meanwhile, across town, Mark Weiss at MHARR is giving a wide berth to all of that infighting and plotting, as he focuses on issues he believes will benefit independent producers.
That “New National Association” and Their “Marketing Plan”
The plotter’s for a new association plan for a national campaign – which is certainly worthy of being done. But do they know what professionally producing a 30 second spot for mainstream TV costs, per the Wall Street Journal?
“An average :30 commercial generally costs between $300-500k, depending on how many locations, how many days you’re shooting, how much on-camera talent, and myriad other factors. Costs start to skyrocket when you add celebrities, license music instead of scoring it, heavy special effects, and so on.”
Please note. That’s not the cost of running the ads! That’s just the cost of producing one prime-time quality commerical.
That’s one of many reasons why for years MHProNews has pushed for an alternative strategy that is local market based, but yields national coverage. A plan that reflects industry realities. But that’s another Masthead post for another time. Suffice it to say for now that $2 million for 2 years could yield another $4 billion annually per year in new MH sales at retail.
Yes, we’re making progress. Yes, its slow. Again, egos and agendas are part of what is holding the many back. Supporting common sense might mean that some would be embarrassed.
So the struggle goes on here to thread the needle of exposing threats and opportunities alike.
People say things they don’t truly understand, based upon ego, envy, and other errors. The off-the-record quotable quote above bears repeating:
“Isn’t it amazing how many thousands of peoples’ lives in this industry
have been upended by the unwillingness of so few people to get along?”
The National and MH Crossroads
Let’s step outside ourselves and use a very recent, non-MH analogy.
America is the land of the free, and the home of the brave. So Pope Francis quoted the great American hymn as part of his fascinating address to Congress. The left embraces him on issues like climate change and immigration, and the right on issues such as being pro-Life and Religious liberty. I wonder if either political camp realizes they aren’t fully or truly listening?
The papal words are quite capable of being understood – for example – not as a call to open borders; nor does he lay out a program on climate. Pope Francis praised business and the creation of jobs in English; does that sound like a socialist?
One forgets – or many didn’t know – that Argentina has lived an extreme form of crony capitalism, not something akin to America’s free enterprise system. Tyrannical power and greed are among what the Pope decries, aren’t those part of what Jesus also taught?
The current pope is a Jesuit – meaning, highly educated. He is seeking to thread needles. He wants peace, not this unnamed Third World War being waged in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where Russia and China team up with jihadis, Iran’s and North Korea’s killer regimes to foment anti-Western terror and destabilization. He says we should care for the environment, but did you hear him say we need cap and trade? So he states a goal or principle, not how we should put a principle into action. He said we should be just and welcoming to foreigners, not that we must ignore our own laws (which were enacted with justice to legal immigrants and U.S. nationals in mind).
Seen in the light of Judeo-Christian and much of the American tradition, does the pontiff’s full address (linked here) read anything like what either the left or right wing media portrays it to be?
I share this as an example to say, we must learn to listen and truly respect each other. We should try to get to the heart of issues, instead of talking past each other and hearing only what we want to see, read or hear.
Confronting people with the Truth
The truth can be uncomfortable. Our Industry’s leaders need to seek the common good. We need to work for the success of our home owners, and that in turn will benefit virtually all of us.
Those who want to carve a fiefdom or an empire at the expense of the many may find themselves challenged and suffering the same fate that Kodak or Montgomery Wards did. We are entitled to our own opinions. But we should care enough about our collective interests to subordinate ourselves to a reasonable degree of enlightened mutual self-interest.
We need that fraternity that Tim Williams of 21st Mortgage spoke about, linked here.
We need to re-read the call to action that Triad Financial’s Don Glisson Jr issued to MHI, MHARR and all – to be goal and solution oriented, not just gripe oriented…see his wisdom again, linked here.
One of my favorite quotes which we strive to apply to MH daily is this:
You can get everything out of life that you want, when you help enough other people get out of life what they want. – Zig Ziglar
The world is in crisis. President Kennedy reminds us from his grave in Arlington that the 2 characters that spell crisis in Chinese also means opportunity.
As a closing segue/promo, please take a look at our latest video on a model home named The Kennedy, linked here. And if you’ve not yet seen the Marty Lavin video interview, grab a favorite beverage and click here. ##
