“When in the course of human events...”
Day by day, people make life-changing decisions. Those choices can be for good or ill.
A fact without context may have little discernible meaning. To properly understand the present, or any moment in time, one must understand what occurred previously.
In the famous George Orwell’s dark novel, 1984, control of information – including historical – was part of how “Big Brother” could pivot his alliances between otherwise ‘competing’ factions.
Orwell used fiction to brilliantly shed light on the human condition.
Profitable History
History could be profitably oversimplified to the following notion.
History is a series of events describing how this or that ambitious person or group tries to dominate, manipulate or oppress others. That domination in turn creates a desire for freedom among those being manipulated, disadvantaged or controlled.
“When in the course of human events…” are the first words in the Declaration of Independence. The founders were educated men who knew history, business, philosophy, science, and religion.
America’s founding founders were the opposite of socialists. They were fighting against economic, political, and legal oppression. They did so for moral, and religious reasons.
Not What It Seems
Because of competing interests, stories – narratives – are told that spin, twist or outright lie about some fact, person, history, or group.
The brilliant G.K. Chesterton was spot on in saying, “What is wrong is that we don’t ask what is right.”
It was sheer genius when the venerable Fulton Sheen – with his keen insights into human nature – caused him to observe that people can be tempted to do what is right, just as we can be tempted into doing what’s wrong.
It’s a stretch to say that a brighter future for America depends upon a wider acceptance of manufactured homes. But a broader understanding and embracing of manufactured homes would demonstrably yield more wealth for people of modest means, and all others too. Is there evidence or proof for that claim?
Yes, and it’s been produced over the years by educated, third-party researchers.
Greater personal net worth for the working and middle class would in turn make America as a whole a more prosperous, and freer people. Wealth in all of its forms – properly understood – breeds more wealth. Wealth isn’t a zero sum game, as some have been mislead into believing.
We must not forget that manufactured homes – along with the mobile homes that were built before the federal manufactured housing standards began on June 15, 1976 – were a working-class option praised by American presidents. The subsidized housing system of the last 50 years is a demonstrable failure. It can never keep up with the demands, and never has.
In contrast to subsidized housing, manufactured homes are uniquely positioned today to serve the needs of people on virtually all rungs of the economic ladder.
But we must also embrace the reality that millionaires, the famous, and even some billionaires have owned a manufactured home they called their own home. That fact often opens minds, and thus boosts manufactured housing’s acceptance, and appeal.
Opening minds is at the heart of what must happen in America. Opening minds must occur on every level of society, including that of the good news, which includes how manufactured homes have and can support the American Dream.
The American Dream – The Profitable Battle Over Housing, Freedom, and Understanding
The American Dream was never about mere shelter, or “housing.”
Rentals or subsidized housing wasn’t what the rebels of 1776 fought, bled, and died for during their era. The very notion would have been widely rejected then, and rightly so.
Today, we should in stages remove subsidized housing from the government’s practices and then, it’s lexicon of failed socialized efforts.
Private ownership of housing is to be preferred as a public policy. Who says? Harvard, and several other third-party researchers.
So, the American rebels wanted to be secure in their persons, properties, papers, and possessions. They wanted no taxation or regulation without just representation. They wanted a republic, not a democracy, dictatorship or monarchy.
When one reads the Declaration of Independence in the context of history, it’s a brilliant document. Ditto the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
Compromise…
The founders of the U.S. made complex compromises. A black or Native American might understandably feel a level of pain over some concepts in those documents. But we must be mindful, as dark-skinned immigrant Dinesh D’Souza reminds us, that whites were indentured servants too. Servitude isn’t only a racial issue. Oppression in all of its forms plays a sad part in all of human history.
The quest for freedom is part of that puzzling mosaic of history, which is best understood as the struggle of some seeking domination over others. That domination takes many forms. That thirst for domination in turn sparks the desire for freedom. Often, as we all know from experience, we don’t realize some good thing that what we have, until we’re losing or have lost it.
So it’s a poisonous fallacy to say that the U.S. Constitution was purely racist. Because blacks owned other blacks – sad, but true – and white’s made chattel of other whites for long periods of time. Conquest is color blind, and so is the thirst for freedom. Freedom is won or lost in degrees, and over time.
Race hustlers should be denounced as manipulative, just as certain billionaires seek to rig the system for their own benefit and enrichment today. Socialists may be sincere, but they are misguided. The socialist system is failing before our eyes in Venezuela, in just a decade. It failed in Cuba. The Chinese Communists, and the Soviet Russians abandoned socialism too.
Why should Americans buy into propaganda that’s so blatantly false?
Then why are some billionaires peddling dressed up variations of socialism to Americans today?
Because socialism requires big government. Big government means power over people. That kind of power is a path to taking the wealth of others, by misusing government. Government is a devious way to obtaining money that ought to be sought by honest work. Here’s another historic tip. The Nazi’s weren’t right wingers. They were “National Socialists” = Nazi. There are so many lies and half-truths being spun today by the manipulators that it’s disgraceful. That’s why ignorance of history, economics, morality, or politics is dangerous.
Celebrating Success
We celebrate honest success here, and are for the rights “endowed by our Creator” enshrined in the principles of “Life, Liberty, and that Pursuit of Happiness;” which in the earlier draft of the Declaration read “Life, Liberty, and Property.”
Those who peddle:
- Socialism,
- Racial hatred of any kind,
- Universal Basic Income,
- Sexual divisions,
- “Free” college,
- “Free” health care,
- Subsidized housing,
- Higher taxes,
- More regulations,
are arguably either ignorant, misguided, manipulative or some combination of those three.
People are never free who are entirely dependent upon others.
The revolution of 1776 was controversial even in the 13 colonies. Those colonies declared themselves to be a confederation of independent states. George Washington and the others had a price on their heads, and a bulls eye too. Benedict Arnold wasn’t alone. America was divided, then and now. Some fought for the British crown, just as some fight today for the monopolistic and socialistic. The reasons then and now are similar. Greed. Lust for power. The desire to control the lives of others.
Understanding the principles of human nature, and the principles of history are necessary for Americans to reclaim our national vision. Affordable home ownership is part of that American Dream.
Homeownership
“A man’s home is his castle,” wasn’t mere sentimentality. The right to own property – including one’s home – and to be secure in one’s person, property (think home), papers, possessions, and beliefs were at the core of the 1776 revolt. Note that the 10 Commandments protected private property, and the truth.
The American revolution was also about no taxation or regulation without just representation. It was about establishing laws that protected rights, even the rights of minorities against the potential of mob rule from manipulated majorities.
We’ve got a Republic, at least on paper, not a democracy.
But a new revolt, which could be peaceful, is arguably needed today. That revolution – and a counter-revolution – are already underway.
That revolution of the American Dream begins with understanding realities vs. popularized fictions, lies or half-truths.
“Zoning” and other forms of land-use control are among those structures that are potentially as oppressive as what the founders rebelled against in 1776. Note that 200 year span between the revolution, and the dawn of the manufactured housing era?
Manipulations of the American system in turn caused affordable housing shortages in places throughout the nation. Who says? A growing body of researchers, that have been cited for years here on MHProNews, or on MHLivingNews. Why don’t those folks in Arlington, VA routinely cite those same third-party sources? Why do they turn instead to their own, weaponized data and claims?
$2 Trillion Annually
Problematic zoning and land use, say university-level researchers, costs America an estimated $2 trillion dollars a year in lost GDP.
$2 trillion dollars a year is roughly equal to $6,000 per every many woman and child.
Rephrased, for a household of 4 people, it would be like adding some $24,000 per year in earnings.
That’s life changing for tens of millions, and would be far more effective than the phony higher minimum wage, public assistance programs, or other enslaving handouts that some socialistic-minded wags advocate. Those truly need have always been cared for in America. We didn’t need big brother government to care for people in need.
When Americans are kept from understanding and embracing manufactured homes – per the logic and reasoning that flows from third-party researchers from places like Harvard – it’s costly to all Americans.
But ignorance and rejection of the truth about manufactured housing is especially costly to those whose only home ownership chance may be a manufactured home.
Wheat and Chaff
There’s an absolute necessity to seek the truth, regardless of its source. That in turn requires a “wheat and chaff” approach that discerns what is real – from what is problematic. Often, common thoughts are nevertheless untrue. A great example is a manufactured home, which many misunderstand, because they believe the common prejudice, vs. the honest, demonstrable reality.
We may disagree with this or that political party or organization on a range of issues. But a group or person may still hold a position which is demonstrably wise, good, and true. Prosperity Now (formerly CFED) has done some fine research, but also hold some problematic socialist-tainted views. They are keenly involved in MHVille, and are an example of the need for a wheat and chaff approach. They are also an example of why engagement is a wise course of action. Critiques properly understood aren’t an attack. Critiques are a call for intelligent debate, discussion, and mutual learning.
Former Clinton adviser and Democratic strategist Doug Schoen has said that the Democratic Party can’t be a party of redistribution of wealth. Smart.
Schoen sees the hard left push in his party as embracing socialism, and he rejects it. Democrat Alan Dershowitz sees the harm being caused by weaponizing parts of the government in an attempt to illegitimately unseat a duly elected president.
You or I may not trust the political, religious or economic perspective of some group or person. But that doesn’t keep us from considering a specific truth that another may offer.
So, for example. Much of what Democrats as a party are embracing today in the way of socialism and supposedly “free stuff” – which obviously someone must pay for – are demonstrably nonsense. They are false promises, designed to manipulatively attract, and trap millions of minds.
But the Democrats were arguably smart to put up a policy position that calls for stronger controls over monopolistic forces in America. On that point, this Masthead writer agrees with them. That’s another example of separating the wheat from the chaff.
Candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump agreed on this. The “System is Rigged.” That much is true.
And that rigged system is keeping millions from being more free by having their right to choose a manufactured home limited or removed.
Yet, that right to choose a manufactured home is essentially codified in federal law, in the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act of 2000, found in the enhanced preemption clause. That’s how zoning and other land-use regulations, which are strangling opportunities for millions to own a manufactured home, can be defeated, just by applying existing federal law.
The reward for doing so is a society that researchers say would produce $2 trillion dollars more a year in GDP. That in turn would in time end the need for subsidized housing, and other well-indented – but nevertheless misguided – ‘entitlement programs.’
We editorially oppose socialists and monopolistic manipulators. It is interesting to note that those billionaires often publicly claim to support leftist candidates. We oppose them, whether their headquarters are in Omaha or Silicon Valley, etc.
There are some billionaires who are no doubt just fine, so its not the rich that are being blindly opposed. But rather, it’s those who have rigged the system against the rights of “We, the People.” It’s a matter of principle, based upon an understanding of economic, legal, political, and historical forces.
There are more than one strategic moats which threaten our Republic from within. That’s why the fictional movie Network was as brilliant a look at reality as was George Orwell’s 1984.
Manufactured Home “Choice”
“Manufactured Home Choice” or the “Manufactured Home Option” must become a factually accurate, evidenced based battle cry that third-party researchers logic says could create trillions in more wealth and GDP productivity for the USA.
That would yield thousands of new millionaires, and some new billionaires. They should embrace the long-term vision to make that manufactured home option part of the reality of the “American Dream.”
That’s the Profitable Manufactured Housing Revolution.
That can be done without creating a monopoly.
If you’re among those who’ve followed our periodic series of reports on issues – past and present – that could make manufactured housing greater than ever, you aren’t alone. If you’ve missed them, some are linked below, as references for greater insight on this essay.
Tim, Kevin, Joe, Keith, David, Ross, Mike, Sam…
MH professionals named Tim, Kevin, Joe, Keith, Ross, David, Ross, Mike, Sam, and a host of others are – per our sources – following those reports, articles, and commentary like this on MHProNews. When they follow it, that’s a good reason for others in MHVille to do the same, isn’t it?
They, per the evidence, may or may not agree with the goals behind what we publish. What is our goal? To expand opportunities made possible by a broad use of manufactured homes, promoted in an honest, sustainable, and honorable fashion.
As an example of those that Marty Lavin calls the “big boys” – and how they react to what is published on MHProNews is this.
We are told by sources in and out of their Arlington based network that a gent named Tim is “obsessed” with what we publish.
Why?
If this was a place online for the angry or mad, it would soon be devoid of readers.
But instead, third-party reports reveal a growing audience, which includes:
- International investors,
- public officials,
- advocates,
- media,
- researchers,
- educated people across the left-right divide,
along with thousands of manufactured and factory-built home industry professionals.
They come each day by the thousands to the Daily Business News and/or to other parts of MHProNews.
Some who initially misunderstood – or even strongly opposed – our exposés like Smoking Gun 3 and other reports have-or-are becoming convinced by the evidence presented.
Facts in context matter.
Some monopolistic minds sought to marginalize or kill-off, we’re told, this pro-industry, pro-growth Trade Media platform – along with our sister-site, MHLivingNews.com – which also begs the question, “Why?”
George Orwell, the founders, or other freedom-loving thinkers and doers throughout history hold the answer.
“Ignorance is Strength,” was a slogan “Big Brother” used in Orwell’s 1984. If someone can keep you ignorant of your rights or opportunities – in the problematic world-view of monopolistic or socialistic dominators – that allows them to profit or benefit.
The tragic irony is this.
There is arguably more profit without the monopolistic strategic Moat than with it. Is there evidence for that claim?
Sure. Just look at MHVille when there were more independent producers, vs. the scarcity of independents today for proof.
There’s more wealth to be earned by making America and Manufactured Housing Greater than ever, than there is by robbing people of opportunities though pressures, ignorance, rigged systems or false promises.
We have always celebrated honest success on MHProNews.
We oppose on principle monopolistic or any other form of economic, moral, and political oppression as Un-American.
At the end of the day, it’s the truth that sets people free. Who says? How about a wise Jewish rebel who preached a gospel that even centuries later motivated the 1776 founders who put their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the line, when they began with those timeless words…
“When in the course of human events…”
Knowledge, not ignorance, is the beginning of freedom.
Education, not spin or hype, are a fundamental part of the Manufactured Housing Revolution.
It’s all about the education of our fellows that can make this manufactured home industry an ever-more vital part of the American Dream of homeownership.
The proof is there for those who are willing to explore the evidence. Can we get an “Amen?” ## (News, historic, commentary, analysis.)
(Third party images, content are provided under fair use guidelines.)
Related Reports are below…
By L. A. “Tony” Kovach, publisher, consultant, history buff, and manufactured housing industry expert.
Connect on LinkedIn. For 2x weekly emailed headline news, click here.
Related Reports:
Manufactured Home Shipments, State by State Breakdown, May 2018 Official HUD Data
https://www.manufacturedhomepronews.com/two-great-laws-already-on-the-books-now-can-unlock-billion-annually-for-manufactured-housing-industry-businesse-investor/
Time Travelers, and the Future of American Homes – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
Every single one of us is a time traveler. We go through space and time, one moment at a time. Then minutes, days, weeks, months, and years at a time. We can learn from others, past and present, about their experiences in time. How do we make the most of our lives?
Deadwood, the Manufactured Housing Revolution, and You – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
The sun rose slowly over Deadwood, SD that day. The hills and trees offered cover for a variety of animals, including big horn sheep, and mountain goats. Outside the Inn at Deadwood, the manicured landscaping yielded naturally to the glass doors that welcomed tourists, gamers, and business professionals.
“Why Advocates Need to Rethink Manufactured Home Quality,” Harvard, GSE, Genz, “High Satisfaction”
“Challenges to Obtaining Manufactured Home Financing,” Urban Institute Report Fact Check, Analysis
YIMBY vs. NIMBY, Obama Admin Concept Could Unlock $1.95 Trillion Annually, HUD & MH Impact
Achieving the American Dream, with Quality, Appealing, Affordable Home Ownership – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
Holidays and memorials exist for many reasons. Reflection and recreation are among them. The 4th of July is known as Independence Day in the USA. Why? What does it mean to be independent? What did America’s founders want to be free from? These are worthy questions for reflection and discussion on any day, including holidays.
“The Solution to the Affordable Housing Crisis is Hiding in Plain Sight” – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
“…lower rates of crime than you would expect, because they had pride of ownership …” – William P. McCarty , PhD – University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Criminology, Law and Justice “What may be surprising to real estate licensees is the level of energy efficiency available …”
Weather Expert’s Surprising, Bombshell Statement on Tornado Deaths and Affordable Manufactured Homes – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
An eye-opening statement from a National Weather Service (NWS) expert reveals that tornado related risk of death for residents of mobile or manufactured homes are being improperly warned, and reported. Before diving into that exclusive, written statement from NWS, it is instructive to look at the safety, durability, and quality issue about factory-built homes in a broader way.
Researchers Shake Up American Dream? Rent vs. Buy, Ken Johnson, Florida Atlantic University, Exclusive to ManufacturedHomeLivingNews – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
For those who want the bottom line first, new university research reveals that manufactured homes could be a superior housing value when it comes to wealth creation. With that executive summary, let’s dig into the details of the new research, and what the co-author of the university study specifically told MHLivingNews in an exclusive on-the-record statement.
“Death by Government,” Fascism, Communism, Socialism, ‘Big Brother,’ per Williams, Rummel and Owens
Publisher Rebuked! Doubting Doctor, Skeptic Stunned! – manufacturedhomelivingnews.com
Let’s begin with a blast of honesty. Doing some Inside MH video episodes are more fun than others. At the start and end of the video below, yours truly gets rebuked by a person being interviewed. Part of what’s interesting in doing unscripted interviews is that you never know what someone is going to say.
