The Wall Street Journal’s recent report on emails that documented Jonathan Gruber’s ‘heroic’ roll in putting together and passing the misnamed Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka ObamaCare) is just the latest reminder that public officials at many levels have embraced the strategy of Josef Goebbels, Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Chairman Mao.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” – Josef Goebbels
Should the intelligent laugh or cry when ‘StartUp NY’ – their state funded commericals – runs their zero-tax ads for new or expanding businesses on networks like Fox News? On the one hand, it contradicts the tax-the-rich views that NY, CA or other mostly D run states tend to have. Yet we know President John F. Kennedy (D) and others took positions that lowered taxes, and grew the economy in their wake. The Communists in China, along with now-booming economies that once were so-so, grow today due to easier regulations – and/or lower taxes – than what we see coming from high tax states like NY (they are rated near the bottom on most business climate lists) or for that matter, coming out of DC in recent years.
It is not my goal to carefully analyze the NY plan above, but perhaps the reason that Forbes reports this program as getting off to a slow start is because the prospective business person has to wonder, ‘Okay, what happens to me in NY at the end of ten years?’ Uncertainty, we’ve all heard from the investor class, is harmful to business and growth.
Growing an economy here in the U.S. is not magic! “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” Likewise, the power to regulate is also the power to destroy.
So the reverse of the above implies that lower taxes and easier, common sense (vs CFPB style) regs fuels the kinds of growth that made America great. Herein lies one of many MH connections to the importance of truth-telling and the goal of policy sanity we in MH should seek. Sure, we ought to fight for HR 650/S 682, but we are wise to also look at a longer term plan that promotes a healthy business climate for all in America.
Self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders’ campaign to be the Democratic presidential nominee is driving Hillary Clinton even further left. The reason I’m a political independent is because Republicans – who tend to be more for free enterprise – can at times play footsie with the facts or simply make bad judgments, as in the case of too many Rs being on board with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bill. If it is such a great trade bill, why all the secrecy?
When truth is harder to find, a responsible person goes to more sources, then applies reason to sort it all out. So your scribe reads the New York Times, Fox and a spectrum of sources – domestic and international – to triangulate reality vs. the various party lines.
Let’s see how all of this applies to MH.
The Truth Matters
It is useful (above) to cite examples outside of our arena of immediate self-interest to make a parallel point. The truth about MH matters. The truth about MH lending matters.
Yet we see forces like Doug Ryan led CFED – who are pro-MH on their website – take a position proven to be contrary to the interests of MH home owners, businesses and by extension, America in general.
Doug, does the Truth Matter? Or does revenue to CFED from CFPB Trump the Truth? (Political pun intended).
Relatively Speaking…?
Some say truth is relative. They’re only half-right. The truth of your taste or mine, that’s ‘relative’ (meaning, subjective or personal). But gravity – for example – is not subjective. Gravity exists. The truth could be defined as ‘what is.’ The iPhone 6 Plus I’m typing this draft of my blog on, it is – it exists – even if no one besides me believes in it or knows it exists.
So there are both Objective Truths and subjective truths.
That said, the truths of MH we strive to focus on are objective realities. The combination of Objective Truth, and the subjective praise from MH home owners is what is making MHLivingNews.com the positive force it is for those owners, and the professionals of our industry.
Is it any wonder there are sales being attributed by MH pros to stories on our public-focused sister-site? Or is it any wonder that the traffic – already good! – on MHLivingNews doubled in April, and then doubled again in May? Is it any wonder that views of the Dennis Raper video, which went live only 5 days ago, have skyrocketed?
We don’t make it easy for people to find my phone number or email from MHLivingNews. Yet, we are seeing a growing number of home seekers calling my office to ask questions about:
> who to buy from,
> where and how to shop for an MH,
> or who to turn to for MH financing.
The truth well told is powerful. We have the right to our opinions, but no one has the right to make up their own facts. The truth – reality – matters. You don’t want to be deceived, right? You don’t want to be lied to about something consequential, correct? These are proofs that at some level, we all know that truth exists and that truth does in fact matter to us, and thus should matter to others.
It is my sincere hope that SCOTUS gets it right on the ACA when they hand down their decision. Lies should not be rewarded. It is my hope that Ryan/CFED will own up to their apparent conflict of interest, and reverse course to support MH home owners, MH shoppers, MH Lending and MH job creators.
We don’t have to exaggerate to make the case for MH. There were two old TV shows whose titles that come to mind. “To Tell the Truth” and…
…“Truth or Consequences”…
We’ll look at the profitable power of truth-telling in more details in our rapidly approaching July issue of MHProNews. ##
