George Allen / EducateMHC Blog Mobile Home & Land Lease Community Advocate & Expert

January 21, 2022

A ‘GREAT RESET’ FOR MANUFACTURED HOUSING & COMMUNITY PORTFOLIOS?

Filed under: Uncategorized — George Allen @ 12:58 pm

Blog Posting # 673 @ 21 January 2022: EducateMHC

Perspective. ‘Land lease communities, previously manufactured home communities, and earlier, mobile home parks’, comprise the real estate component of manufactured housing!’

EducateMHC is the online national advocate, realty asset class historian, trend spotter, education resource & textbook supplier for land lease communities throughout North America!

To input this blog and or connect with EducateMHC, telephone (317) 888-3815, email gfa7156@aol.com and/or visit www.educatemhc.com Previous phone #s no longer connected.

Motto; ‘U Support US & WE Serve U!’ Goal: to promote HUD-Code manufactured housing and land lease communities as U.S. # 1 source of affordable attainable housing! Be MHM certified!

INTRODUCTION: This week’s posting ranges from the very serious (Part I,) to a mixture of humor and wise advice (Part II). While I don’t want to come across, in my writing, as a naysayer or pessimist, I do have serious concerns about the present and future viability of our industry and its’ real estate component (i.e. land lease communities). This week I only scratch the surface of such concerns; attempting to remain positive throughout the commentary. GFA

I.

A ‘GREAT RESET’ FOR MANUFACTURED HOUSING & COMMUNITY PORTFOLIOS?

By now many, if not most, Americans have at least heard of the coming Great Reset.
Is it “…a conspiracy theory imagining a vast left-wing plot to establish a totalitarian one-world government?” OR, simply “…a means of addressing the ‘weaknesses of capitalism’ purportedly exposed by the COVID pandemic.”?*1 Or, something altogether different?

Historically, the phrase ‘Great Reset’ became commonplace upon publication of the 2010 book, ‘The Great Reset’, by Richard Florida. Here, the author suggested the 2008 economic crash was the most recent Great Reset; others being the long depression of the 1870s and Great Depression of the 1930s. The World Economic Forum (‘WEF’) in Switzerland, in its’ recent book, ‘COVID-19: The Great Reset’, suggests ‘weaknesses of capitalism’ were exposed by the COVID pandemic.

Two months before the COVID outbreak in China hit the news scene, the WEF, with others, engaged in a pandemic exercise, ‘Event 201’, simulating an international response to an outbreak of a coronavirus. Results closely resembled what happened during the future COVID scenario, hence the tie to it being another Great Reset. And shortly after its 50th meeting, during June 2020, the WEF declared “…COVID represents an ‘opportunity (to) be seized’, to reimagine our world by …”Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon….” to introduce a bewildering economic amalgam (‘combination or compound’) ‘stakeholder capitalism’, a.k.a. ‘corporate socialism’; some say ‘communist capitalism.’*2

A consequence of this social justice aspect of the Great Reset? “…government, banks, and asset managers use the Environmental, Social & Governance (‘ESG’) index to squeeze non-woke corporations and businesses out of the market.” It’s essentially a social credit score used to drive ownership, even control production, away from those non-woke and non-compliant.*3

Specifically, “…the governmental favoring of industries and players within industries – what used to be known as corporatism or economic fascism”…continues in play during the Great Reset. (as) “Approved corporations’ tend towards monopolization, exercising control over production and distribution IN AS FEW FAVORED CORPORATIONS AS POSSIBLE, while eliminating industries and producers deemed non-essential or inimical (‘harmful’).” WHOA! Some will argue this is already happening, via industrywide consolidation, among HUD-Code housing manufacturers….think of the Big 3-C corporations ostensibly controlling proceedings of the Manufactured Housing Institute – and its National Communities Council division.

So, has the Great Reset already impacted (i.e. impacting) manufactured housing and community portfolios in the fashion just described?

We’re about to find out as we move further into year 2022. Will the Big 3-C corporations grow to claim more than 80 percent national market share of manufactured housing shipments? Will (some) land lease community portfolio owners/operators continue to negatively impact local rental housing markets with exorbitant site rent rate increases and imposition of other add-on homeowner/site lessee expenses? If so, don’t be surprised when a Great Reset negatively affects our industry and realty asset class in ways not experienced before!

If you have personal commentary on the Great Reset scenario, reach me via gfa7156!aol.com

End Note.

1. Quotes in this posting are from a speech, by Michael Rectenwald, delivered at Hillsdale College on 7 November 2021, and published in the December issue of IMPRIMIS newsletter.

2. “…stakeholder capitalism involves the behavioral modification of corporations to benefit not shareholders, but stakeholders – individuals and groups that stand to benefit or lose from corporate behavior.” Hard not to think of pending landlord/tenant legislation relative to land lease communities nationwide….GFA

3. ESG. Three key factors measure the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company. Here we have our first hint of how the Great Reset might influence and impact the manufactured housing industry; e.g. Governance criteria…how a firm polices itself, focusing on executive remuneration, political lobbying, board diversity and structure, as well as other variables. GFA

II,

PERSONAL POTPOURRI

Years (decades?) ago I penned a column for the now defunct ‘Journal’ (of manufactured housing) that occasionally featured a potpourri (‘mixture of anything’) collection of bon mots (‘pleasant remarks’) I collected when satisfying my voracious appetite for reading. Well, now that I’m pretty much retired, I’m finding such gems all over the place – even in long neglected files of newspaper clippings, etc… What follows here is your first opportunity to share in an eclectic reading experience.

Did you know? In white pages of older telephone directories, phonetic language was oft used to help patrons find desired listings. For many years, Indiana Bell (before it was dissolved) listed itself as the ‘Fone Company’, right before Mee Kiu Fong’s telephone listing in the directory.

Do you speak in front of audiences? Here’s what James Roosevelt’s father recommended to him: ‘Be sincere…Be brief…Be seated! And Alben W. Barkley suggests the best audience is one that is intelligent, well-educated, and a little drunk.

Ever hear the Mushroom Farm Lament? Well, here goes: “We feel we’re being kept in the dark. Occasionally someone comes around and spreads manure on us. When our heads pop up, they’re chopped off. And then we’re canned.” Quoted from Jim Lundy’s classic book, ‘Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way’, 1986.

Know someone in the industry or realty asset class who routinely angers, insults, and or torpedoes relationships in word or deed? Perhaps a T-shirt with this logo is appropriate:
MAY LIGHT FROM THE BRIDGES I’VE BURNED LIGHT MY WAY.

While reading the following short story, reflect on where it’s headed and who inspired it: “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. Hence I solemnly took to the ship in a blind effort to appease my drizzling soul. Unbeknownst to me was the fateful event this voyage would present. Having a shortage of fresh water, the men resigned themselves to not washing their hands after the moving of their bowels, causing a severe occurrence of stomach cramps and other unpleasant digestive symptoms. Perhaps if I had taken solace in the land, I would never have set foot on that cursed ship.” So, did you think of the author Herman Melville and his classic ‘Moby Dick’? Believe it or not, this reading material was prepared, years ago, and posted in rest area bathrooms along Allegheny County highways in Pennsylvania.

OK, let’s end this week’s post with this quote: ‘Old Age and Treachery will overcome Youth and Skill’ – or so read the T-shirt I wore awhile back.

Next week’s blog? Expect to read ‘A Short Course in Human Relations’, ‘Dr. Strangelove in Vietnam’ (all about the presence of nuclear weapons nearby at the time). For those of you who’ve read my autobiography, you know I was trained as an Atomic Demolitions Munitions technician (a.k.a. suicide bomber), to be activated in the event the North Vietnam Army crossed in mass over into South Vietnam.*1 and ‘How to Eat Crawdads’.

End Note.

1. ‘From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven’ autobiography available via www.educatemhc.com



George Allen, CPM, MHM
EducateMHC


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