Four topics today; let’s start by diving into topic number 1.

1. Dirty Little Secrets

There are some laws of economics that are as immutable as the law of gravity.  We have all heard about the law of supply and demand.  We won’t go into that one today, but what we will look at is subsidies and how they impact us.  Here is the law in a sentence:

“Whatever you subsidize, you will get more of it.”

Here is the American Dictionary definition of a subsidy:

1) Monetary assistance granted by a government to a person or group in support of an enterprise regarded as being in the public interest.

2) Financial assistance given by one person or government to another.

What follows will not be a politically correct statement for millions, but that won’t make it any less true.  If government gives a subsidy to dairy farms, we will get more milk production.  If government gives a subsidy to the makers of wind generators, we will see more of them.  Okay, what’s new with that fact?  What makes that politically incorrect?  Because if government gives a subsidy to the poor, what will we get?

More poverty.

The proof should be obvious.  We now have more poverty in America than at any time since President L B Johnson launched his ‘Great Society’ programs.

Once upon a time in America, if economic realities meant that jobs vanished in a certain location, what did people do?  They packed up and moved to where they could find work.

But with the advent of poverty programs, economic principles have become imbalanced.  Think about the law of gravity for a minute.  Did you ever stop and think that even a small child can suspend the law of gravity?  Toss a ball in the air; it will naturally fall to the ground.  But if a child grabs it before it falls, then gravity has been diverted or suspended.   Subsidize poverty and you get and keep more people in poverty.  Subsidize imports (and we have a reverse subsidy in place for imports without most realizing it), and you get more imports. Subsidize unemployment and you get more unemployment for a longer period of time.

The Chinese figured it out centuries ago:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a life time.

So why do people in Congress do such things as subsiding poverty or subsiding unemployment? Because there is a perceived political gain when one does so. It is also easier to go along than to speak the truth, which takes some explaining. No one wants to seem heartless towards the unemployed, especially around the holidays or election time.

This principle about subsidies is important to every man, woman and child in our great Country.  Some say the last election reflected a shift in our country. If millions are sick and tired of being sick and tired, we must begin to look realities in the face and act according to those realities.  Don’t get angry when someone tells you it is raining if it IS raining!  Someone telling you the facts about the rainy weather gives you the opportunity to put on a raincoat or to grab an umbrella.

We can’t have a nation whose government penalizes businesses and domestic investment, which thus in turn drives more jobs overseas.  We can’t have a nation that is sustainable without some significant forms of production.

Production is precisely what factory building is about! But to keep ourselves competitive, we have to address political issues in order to correct economic malaise caused by poor policies, even if they were ‘well meaning.’

We cannot afford to ignore all aspects of local, state and national politics, because they directly or indirectly impact each of us. Be it health care, foreign aid, or imports from other countries, it all touches upon us.

Sadly, increased poverty may seem to help us, because millions more in poverty today can’t dream of conventional home ownership, but some in the ranks of the poor could buy a manufactured home.  But the reality is that a properly functioning economic and political system would yield still more business for our Industry.

We should be thinking in part about a “Made in the U.S.A.” campaign.  This will increasingly become something for American consumers to consider: was a product made in America or not?  We should promote our manufactured home product as the quality American-made homes that we, in fact, represent.  If we fail to do those common-sense steps, if we fail to grasp and apply common sense economics, we will see Chinese or other prefab homes coming to the U.S.  That is more of a concern than some may realize.

We will return to this topic of how some political policies create economics incentives (a reverse subsidy for imports) and what such basic economic principles mean for you, our Industry and the American economic way of life at a later date. Do stay tuned.

2.  Manufactured Housing News Tips

Every day more people are signing up for our podcasts and to be in our twice-weekly emailed news and information updates.  Our registration pages are now among our most accessed pages.  Some of the biggest names in our Industry are readers or listen to our exclusive podcasts of news, market reports and feature articles.

Why is this so?  Perhaps an important reason is the word “exclusive!” in our next issue, we will have an exclusive “A Cup of Coffee with…Teresa Payne” interview.  You will find interesting insights from the HUD’s new MH program leader.  Sign up now and stay tuned.

We will also have an exclusive report by Matthew Silver on the Indiana Association’s recent meeting on the SAFE Act.  They’ve had audits going on in IN by state officials; see what is going on, because those audits could be coming to your state soon if you live in a different state.

Eric Miller is working on a report on Canada’s housing picture, to give us a sense of what we can learn from their currently more robust market.

Yes, you can get MHI or MHARR news here, along with reports from a number of states, corporations or other sources.  But we also have news exclusives you won’t find anywhere else.  Some stories hit our pages before anywhere else in the Industry…

News Tips are often the reason!

When you have the only Industry in Focus Reporter, Eric Miller, that means you will get news, coverage and in-depth analysis of issues here you won’t find anywhere else.

Why would you want to share a news tip?  There are many possible reasons…

But the reality is that people DO share tips, and our own research reveals certain facts or insights you won’t find elsewhere.  “Training, News and Views You Can Use” is a reality here.

Let me hasten to add some facts:

Confidentiality.  We can and do protect our sources.

Discernment.  There are stories we do not run.  I can think of one of many stories we didn’t run last summer about a big industry personality.  It was a ‘true’ story, but to our minds it was also a private matter.  We are not a scandal sheet or some kind of rumor rag.

Verification.  We strive to fact check to make sure we get it right, and if we goof, we correct it.

3. More Upcoming items

We will soon launch a discussion on a nationwide image building effort.  We believe this can and should be done in 2011.  It should have a regionalized focus, targeting your market.  We have numerous inputs and concepts already in hand, many pre-tested.  We will be reaching out to associations and others for input.  Please feel free to sound off via email, a posted comment or by phone.  One hint, this doesn’t take millions of dollars to do, and it will drive business for those participating.

Stop in daily for MH Daily Business News and podcasts.  We hope to see you in Louisville; please stop by our booth—booth number 932!

4. Download our TRENDS 2011 Survey and please “take ten” to fill it in and sound off!# #