HealthCare Reform Info & Graphics

ShantyWorld.com Resources in Support of National Health Care Reform.

ShantyWorld has joined some Flickr groups posting Signs and Graphics related to supporting Health Care Reform for Americans.

Health Care Reform Graphics [slideshow]

The Graphics are "postcardware", so we would prefer if you download images, you send us a note and/or photo of you using your sign. (45 Mil Image from FreeStylee on Flickr.)

Image files can be printed out up to 11x17 inches with very good clarity. (Anything larger than that might get more blurred results.)

You can take or email the image to a local copy print shop. Places like Office Max, Kinkos, Office Depot etc., print 11x17 color prints for about $1.49. Laminating adds another $2 in most copy shops. So, for about $3.49 you can get a YARD SIGN in support of Health Care for America. If you have any architect, engineer or graphics friends, their plotters can probably spit out some copies. Images are 300dpi, so 17x22 might print out OK at your local BluePrint/ Large Format copy shop.

Get informed about the facts, before you listen to any of the talking heads on TV or radio.

For more info on the National Health Care Debate, check out these sites:

Sick for Profit - 6 of the CEOS of the largest Health Care Insurance Companies earned more than $1.5 BILLION dollars in personal compensation in the last 5 years. That's money used to deny claims for life saving treatment. Money used to make record profits the last 5 years. 33 cents of every dollar you spend on premiums, goes toward Insurance company profits, so Insurance execs can ride private jets with gold trim china. You don't really know if you have insurance until you are forced to try to use it for a major illness or accident.

HOW FIVE CAPITALIST DEMOCRATIC NATIONS PAY For NATIONAL HEALTH CARE and WHY IT WORKS. "Sick Around the World", From PBS' Frontline series. [video] In-depth view of how other Democratic Nations have solved providing National Health Care for its Citizens. It makes the other nations (and their businesses) more competitive internationally. Health Care Reform is a National Security Issue as well. The Health of our nation's Economy depends on it. We can not be competitive with other nations if we have a sick population nor can we be competitive if our businesses are handcuffed by rising health care costs. (Click on the link above to watch the FULL PBS PROGRAM.)

Proposed Health Reform Consumer Protection Provisions - A MUST READ for anyone who has ever been hassled by an Insurance Company about a claim.

Health Care for America Now - Advocacy Group

The WhiteHouse's Position on Health Care Reform - http://www.healthreform.gov/

Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) - http://www.pnhp.org/

Read the Actual Text of the U.S. National Health Care Act (H.R. 676). Don't take the word of some talking head. Read the Bill for Yourself. (Note these are preliminary, as the Senate and House bills will be refined before any final legislation will be voted on by the entire Congress.)

Former CIGNA Insurance Executive Wendell Potter discusses with PBS Journalist Bill Moyers how the Insurance Companies deny your claims so they can turn a profit- a profit used to pay high executive salaries, pay for private jets and gold china. Insurance gets rich while your friends and family get sicker and die due to denied claims. [video]

Watch the Moyer Video with Wendell Potter - potter2.m4v

10 Reasons to Support Single Payer - from National Nurses Organizing Committee (PDF immediate download link) - http://ow.ly/kzbX

SICKO Facts on How Americans are being abused by Insurance Companies - from Documentary Filmmaker Michael Moore. His BIG LIST OF FACTS and resources on National Health Care and how the USA compares (poorly) to other Democratic Nations.

Minn Nurses Association Supports National Health Plan -

AFL-CIO , SEIU and other Labor organizations Support National Health Care Plan so that American Business can compete internationally with companies who don't have the financial burden of paying for Health Care costs for their workers.

Health Care Now - http://www.healthcare-now.org/

Contact Congress (House & Senate) - It only takes about 3 minutes. Really. Tell them how you feel about How you are Treated by the Health Insurance Companies. Can you afford health care? Can your friends / family ? One person files bankruptcy per minute in America due to Health Costs.

National Health Care - What is It? How is it Different? What Happens? FAQ - Physicians for National Health Program

Health Reform FLYERS & Signs - from http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/healthreformfliers

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE IS A MORAL ISSUE. America has a PAY or DIE Class system of Health Care. You shouldn't have to be wealthy in order to be able to receive quality health care. Americans should not die from preventable illnesses because they couldn't afford the co-pay, their deductible or were afraid if they tried to file a claim, for fear they would be cancelled by their insurance company. Emergency Room care is a strategy to kill poor people. PAY or DIE Health Care is an immoral policy.

Images are not for commercial use nor resale. All Rights Reserved.

©ShantyWorld.com 2009

Posted via web from ShantyWorld

Deather Hate Mobs Mirror White Mobs of Segregated 1950s

The Hate Speech and batant racism is growing with each passing week since President Obama has taken office. I remember telling people before the 2008 election, that should Obama get into office, the fringe but vocal part of racist America would become agitated, and would resort to threats, violence, harassment, and old-fashioned American hate not unlike the mobs we saw during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 60s in America.

What's old is new again.

Of course, hate and racism wasn't new to the 1950's. America was founded on a system of slavery-- a system many white families and corporations still benefit from today. As I work for advocacy of reforming an unjust and immoral Die or Pay [anti] American Health System in America, the threats on my various social media accounts grows. For those of us who knew Obama's election was in no way a signal of the end of racism, it just confirmed to those are grounded in reality that in spite of the advances America has made in electing Obama, the nation still has a very long way to go in the culture divide. One only has to look at the hate mail received by all progressive bloggers (myself included) to see how widespread racism is in America. We have the recent events of the Holocaust Museum murders, the murder of Dr. Tiller (who performed legal medical procedures), the false & racist arrest of Harvard Professor H.L. "Skip" Gates, the racist attacks by GOP Senators on Justice Sonia Sotomayor (during her hearing) and any number of thousands of attacks per day on progressive bloggers as proof. While a well-known Black Harvard Professor is arrested for daring to rightfully, legally demand (in his own home) I.D. from an officer, a (formerly) unknown white working class man wears a loaded gun to a Presidential event in New Hampshire (8/11/09) but isn't even arrested. (Of course now, the Secret Service & FBI will be sure to tail that guy until he dies.) Arrest disparities between whites and people of color aren't new either. Racial profiling that adversely, unjustly & disproportionately affects people of color, is an unacknowledged (unearned) benefit that white Americans routinely ignore, shrug-off.

This kind of culture war has not gone unnoticed among conscientious, supporters of democracy. The hate mobs of New Hampshire and Missouri, Pennsylvania etc., are reminiscent of the Bull Connor style hate mobs of the 1950s and 60s. See the full Spike Lee Documentary "4 Little Girls" -- a true story of 4 Black girls killed by racist whites in Birmingham, Alabama. The hate mobs remind me of the Birther, Deather mobs today. See the hate in their faces.

From Amanda Marcotte of rhRealityCheck.org

Last week, when I wrote about the birther phenomenon and its parallels to the anti-choice movement, the phenomenon was still largely relegated to email lists and mainstream media interviews with wide-eyed conspiracy theorists. It was alarming because it's so widespread and so obviously rooted in a need to express racist contempt towards Barack Obama and his parents' interracial relationship, but it didn't seem like it would grow much bigger. Well, obviously I didn't draw a strong enough parallel between the birthers and the anti-choice movement. If I'd been paying attention to my own ideas, I would have realized that as anti-choicers' frustration with their daily lack of control over women's bodies erupts into violence, so too would birther frustration over the perceived loss of control over the reins of power enjoyed by white people for the entirety of our nation's history.

There's not a formal link between the birther conspiracy theory and the mobs that are trying to shut down discussion about health care reform--and not-so-subtly sending the signal that they are flirting with resorting to violence in order to stop it--but it's not a coincidence that the birther energy rolled up into this mob scene, or that the leaders pushing the birther line are also encouraging mobs of right wingers to shut down town halls by being disruptive. Unsurprisingly, these mobs have turned violent, something anyone who's dealt with the anti-choice protestors could have told you was inevitable. Right wing mobs have broken out in violence in Tampa, FL and St. Louis, MO. Journalists, union activists, and Democrats, who are the perennial favorite villains of right wing talk radio, seem to be favorite targets for violence and threats.

Looking back over the timeline of the growing volume in birther conspiracy theories that rolled up into mobs threatening and delivering violence, it's easy enough to see what instigating issue activated the right wing, furious about its loss of power. Oh, they've been angry and right wing violence has been on the rise, with domestic terrorism incidents that include the murder of Dr. George Tiller. But there's organization and momentum where there wasn't much before, and as Sara Robinson points out, the leadership has been more overtly enabling and cheerleading conspiracy theorists and right wing disruption mobs than they have before - all in the service of hamstringing health care reform.

4 Little Girls (1997, 102 minutes, Full movie), by Director Spike Lee -

Notice the footage of the hate mobs at 21-50 mins into the film. "Keep Your Eye on the Prize. Hold On, Hold On".

However, the hate mobs -- and they are irrational mobs, are now feeling emboldened by hate speech from an enabling institutional hate culture. It's a culture defined by people who enjoy a first amendment right to lie about facts in front of TV cameras. US GOP Senators (Sessions, Kyl, Hatch, Coburn, Cornyn), lunatic TV Entertainers like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity (masquerading as journalists on the right-wing propaganda mill Fox network) and quitter Sara Palin routinely encourage and stir-up an under-educated demographic pre-disposed to vote against their own economic interests in favor of a corporate led class system that exploits poor & middle class whites too.

The same hate culture is fearful that in a truly diverse democracy (signaled by Obama's election and a growing Latino population), perhaps people of color (in power positions) will treat white people in America they way many whites have (directly or indirectly) treated people of color the last 400 plus years. That is their fear. Perhpas their fear is warranted, unless there is some kind of national reconciliation.

The Reagan, Bush (41 & 43), and even the Clinton administrations already took away the hate mobs (& the middle class') livable wage, busted unions that allowed the present day Deathers to live a middle-class lifestyle, and permitted said past GOP admins to open the doors to Free-Trade that lost millions of American middle-class jobs to overseas --- perhaps lost forever. Profits in the 1980s & 90s were privatized and now the corporate losses (born of corporate excess and greed) have been socialized (to the American taxpayers.). These same Deathers like to ignore it was Bush's Treasuray Secretary who socialized the wall Street losses, so his investment banker friends wouldn't lose their wealth. The financial debacle the USA now finds itself in was not Obama's doing -- no matter how much you yell and scream racist epithets. Much of the financial groundwork for destruction was laid before Obama even entered into politics. The hate mobs' anger is misplaced, but they're too stupid to know it, or too racist to acknowledge it. Maybe both.

If the haters get laid-off from their jobs, their factories because American companies can't compete with the lower overhead enjoyed by foreign companies, they seem unable --not just unwilling, to recognize how they too are being disposed of by the wealth & corporate classes.

The cost of health insurance, medical costs in other industrialized Democracies are spread more fairly between private citizens and public investment. These other Democratic nations band together (as a nation) sharing the costs among nearly all citizens, which results in lower costs to everyone. All these Birther fools are too stupid to realize their precious health insurance currently won't pay when they file a claim for a serious ailment. You won't know how bad your insurance is until you need it for a life and death treatment. These same Deather fools opposed to national health insurance ALREADY pay for all the expensive emergency care for the un-insured via their premiums which have more than tripled the last 10 years. (Example for the mentally impaired: you fools also pay the higher cost of retail goods because there are people who shop-lift. The cost is already passed onto you, and to everyone via the retail price.)

The USA can lower everyone's cost for Health Insurance, by spreading the cost also to those who aren't paying health insurance presently. Nearly everyone needs to pay in for the system to work. (Umm, that is the basic principle of ALL types of insurance: spread the risk among as many as possible, so as to minimize the individual, private cost to everyone.) That fact isn't left or right, it's a basic truth. No amount of yelling, or racist name calling, or shotgun buying will change those facts. BTW, your violence won't stand either, because history also shows us you are (already) out numbered.

You can either band together with your fellow Americans to keep the country strong. Or you can continue your hateful ways, dividing & weakening the country-- placing it at risk to be dominated by a larger, expanding, richer China. Change is coming. Being racist won't help you -- not now, not later.

Posted via web from ShantyWorld

Angry white Man Rips Rosa Parks Poster from Woman at Town Hall

From the YouTube Site: BluePearOnline -

Mainstream media kept running image of a Black Woman being hauled out of Sen. Claire McCaskills' Town Hoall meeting 8/11/09.

But what the media NEVER reported is that the Black woman was sitting quietly in her seat, when a white man walked over and snatched her poster, ripped it to shreds and that is what provoked the commotion.  The white man was charged with assault but the woman was portrayed in the Media as the hooligan.

HATE. Is this the legacy you want to promote (by not getting involved in civic issues?)

The largely white audience assumes the Black woman is a protester who started the commotion.

The video tells a very different story.

source: HuffingtonPost.com and [YouTube user:]  BluePearOnline 

 

Posted via web from ShantyWorld

CNN talks 2 Sen McCaskill abt GOP #Healthcare lies

via AudioBoo

Posted via web from ShantyWorld

Houses for Katrina Victims

From the Mother Nature Network (mnn.com) Blog:

Houses for Katrina victims by Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation - http://tinyurl.com/mco7jl

These designs seem ill-conceived(?)

I know Brad didn't design them, but he doesn't seem able to marshall focus on issues affecting real working class people-- not just housing in the abstract (like it's some student project.) So Brad, keep your day job. --SM

From mnn.com,

[quote] Actor Brad Pitt has partnered with real-estate developer and philanthropist Steve Bing to create low-price, sustainable homes as part of the “Make it Right” project. A set of duplex designs were proposed by 13 of the world’s top architects to visualize and design green, sustainable houses for hurricane Katrina victims.The designs had to be flexible, with “interchangeable floor plans that allow the families to change the size and configuration of the two homes as their family size, needs or economic situation changes.”

The big name architects include Bild design, Billes Architecture, Buidlingstudio , BNIM and so on.The selected designs are under construction. More images follow…

[end of quote]

These sure aren't affordable.. They're kinda large, no? The homes seem larger than the homes they were to replace (?) Some look like townhomes, but I can't be sure. (Let's hope some designs are multi-unit dwellings, otherwise they don't appear to have employed much in the way of sustainable principles.)

I like how the deep, dark, cavernous under-bellies of these structures (presumably car ports etc.), are ripe for urban criminal activity and breaks-ins --free from the view of neighbors and passers-by. This kind of well-intended privacy & shelter approach in *urban areas* generally serves to facilitate & shield crime. FAIL. Such design considerations should have been topics covered (by most architecture students) in Residential Defensive Design for Urban Areas 101.

It appears the structures are raised to minimize destruction from (future) flooding. From the School of Unintended Consequences, we should have learned that if certain features facilitate crime, then maybe siting, site selection & civil engineering issues need to be given greater priority as part of an overall design & planning strategy.

Some of the "Build It Better" architects seem to be designing for a suburban context-- not an urban one. FAIL.

Also, part of New Orleans (and urban) working/middle class culture embraces the Front Porch and the importance of the House's connection with one's neighbors as they pass by. Some of the designs struggle to integrate that connection to neighborhood and the street. (Again, the street connection also serves a preemptive purpose in deterring petty crime.) At least one design (with a porch/deck) fails outright, in my opinion. (Just because the deck feature exists, doesn't mean it serves or facilitates the intended purpose.)

I am a big fan of modern, edgy design. However, most of these homes seem to disregard the New Orleans context. Some of the designs are just hideous for urban dwelling (which doesn't mean they won't work in the suburbs.)

How does the idiosyncratic nature of these designs facilitate affordable standard maintenance & repair for families of modest means (if they come to live in one of these units via a Grant? Among the multi-family units, are these rentals? or Co-ops? Assesments for the co-ops need to be established so maintenance in common areas can be provided AND protected.)

One last nit-picky item:

The colors used on the models: Normally, one might put the ideal/preferred color (& material) on the prototype. Some of the color choices are just bizarre (& speak more to the color selection as design exercise, and not the final intended or recommended color. In an academic setting this kind of artistic license is fine. However, the public generally doesn't "get" these kind of nuances, and can be unnecessarily turned off & distracted by this type of detail on otherwise very good designs.)

OK, two nit-picky items:

Stop putting Corvettes in the driveway, unless the icon is consistent with the demographic of the people being served. (When did Corvettes get "green creds" ? Don't answer.)

This is why the public does not understand and perhaps, even hates architects.

ShantyWorld.com

Sent from SM's iPhone

Posted via email from ShantyWorld

i-House Small Pre-Fab House

From the Blog: SmallHouseStyle.com - IHouse PreFab:

i-House Small Pre-Fab House #architecture

Thanks to Clayton Homes, the “i” prefix has finally made its way into the small house market. After 75 years of mobile home manufacturing, the i-house is Clayton’s first big stab at green building. On the swankier end of things, the i-house is super stylish and slightly more expensive than some of the minimalist exemplars featured here at Small House Style, but Clayton’s new invention might yet be considered a steal.

On the inside, the i-house has all the amenities of the trendiest of contemporary homes: from flooring to faucets to light fixtures, everything looks snappy and up-to-date. On the exterior, butterfly-style roofing enables rain collection, optional solar panels account for about half of the house’s energy needs, and low-e windows contribute to making the i-house Energy Star® approved. In short, once you factor in stylishness and energy savings (according to Clayton, about $1/day can cover all electricity and heating costs), the i-house seems like a pretty good deal, all things considered. Comments on various blogs and websites suggest that the i-house might be too “Ikea” for some, but it’s definitely an exciting green prefab model, and it can’t hurt to throw it into the mix. For more on i-house configurations, square footage options, and prices, look here.

Via Clayton Homes and Jetson Green

Images courtesy of Clayton Homes

http://www.smallhousestyle.com/2009/06/19/the-i-house-is-out/

(sent with RssRunner on my iPhone)

Sent from ShantyWorld 's iPhone

Posted via email from ShantyWorld

What Michelle Kaufmann's Closing Says About Construction

Last week, the news of California Architect Michelle Kauffman's closing of her Pre-Fab Housing business was met with heavy hearts in the design community. Kaufman announced the closing on her blog, where news of the closing quickly made its way through the blogosphere, the Green /Sustainable, and architectural communities. I first read the news via Twitter.

There is no doubt that architect Michelle Kaufmann is a talented designer, and has done a lot (almost single handedly) to get the world to see the potential of pre-fab construction. Kaufmann demonstrated that sustainable design need not be ugly, nor sacrifice modern conveniences in the pursuit of being environmentally conscientious. While I have often told clients that "best practices" -- at least as I learned them at Berkeley, have always been "green", environmentally conscientious, cost-saving measures, it took, perhaps, one of Kaufmann's popular designs and the costs of a war waged over oil, before "green" resonated with middle America.

In the summer of 2008, my tree-hugging friends and I eagerly went to the Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) to see Kaufmann's Smart Home Exhibit which showcases sustainable design practices, systems and materials. (See Shantyworld.com post on the MSI/Kaufmann Smart Home Exhibit.)

ShantyWorld.com Visits the MSI Smart Home Exhibit (2008) -

However, as I read Lloyd Alter's interview with Kaufmann posted on Treehugger.com , I couldn't help but be annoyed about another missed opportunity for the country and the architecture & construction industries to take a step forward toward a more sensible way to design and build communities.

Alter makes an important point early in the Kaufmann article -- one probably missed by the majority of home owners and casual readers.

Alter says, "When times were good, Michelle could not find factories to build her stuff; they were making too much money building crap. When the crap market dried up, so did they. "

The problem I have found with many residential contractors (especially those with less than 10-12 years of business experience), is that they seldom seem to learn from their mistakes-- which are many and varied. I am fighting many of the same dumb battles with contractors that I fought 15 years ago: their refusal to follow the plans, and their continual quest to dumb down safety, performance, and long-term economies. Contractors are NOT interchangeable with Architects any more than EMTs can replace surgeons.

One would think that with the economic climate we had post September 11th, contractors would have been more open to different ways of thinking about customers & business in an effort to RETAIN and cultivate more business. But it seems many of them didn't learn much from that period. Housing contractors keep hoping the way they were gouging property owners between 1984 to 2007 (with the exception of a few months following September 11th), would NOT require they adjust the way they built structures going forward.

I had hoped that the economic climate after September 11th also would have served as a warning for the construction industry, but it seemed to be little more than an inconvenient interruption of the mortgage, real estate and construction industries' large-scale, 3-Card Monte Scam-A-Thon of the public. President Bush called on Americans to "go shopping", and a lot of Americans made no adjustments to their lifestyle, financial strategy nor their business practices. Instead, it seemd like the race was on by business to suck the most money out of the economy before another national disaster interrupted "the game".

British Prime Minister Churchill is to have said of Americans, that [we Americans] "..will do the right thing.. once all other possibilities have been exhausted." Among a major portion of the residential builder culture, they seem not to have yet exhausted all the wrong strategies. There is real contempt from contractors toward the greater public (as it relates to quality, value, price, and service rendered.) Many contractors don't seem to take pride in their work product-- they just want to "get paid" before their mistakes are noticed by home owners or the architect.

The seemingly infinite number of home contractor/builder horror stories doesn't show any signs of diminishing in number any time soon either.

While I admit my observations/opinions of "what went wrong" with Kaufmann's business are only based on the one TreeHugger.com interview, I can't help but also be severely disappointed at what appears to be some business mistakes that might have --from an outsider's perspective, been avoided. I know for Kaufmann it must be a regrettable financial mess for all those involved: for Kaufmann & her entire staff, the home owners/clients, the construction/material suppliers, and perhaps even Kaufmann's pre-fab manufacturer/s.

Here's what I am gleaning from the comments in the TreeHugger interview:

It seems Kaufmann was (on paper) acting as a design/build firm-- or at least a developer/re-seller offering these pre-fab homes to people. She essentially sub-contracted the construction to an unreliable contractor (pre-fab manufacturer/builder), who basically screwed Kaufmann, the suppliers and the would-be home owners all at once. (See, this is why I hate residential contractors !!) Even though Kaufmann had 20+/- clients (at $250-750k construction value+/- each), her mistake was in essentially vouching for the pre-fab company, verbally(?) and contractually.

She really took on too much liability for what she got in return. It's not a position most architects assume (unless they are also acting as a design/build company or re-seller in-charge of the construction accounting and all that it implies.)

Also, unless Kaufman had equity and a management control in those pre-fab construction companies (i.e. the pre-fab manufacturer), she would have no idea of how the pre-fab contractor was managing costs, nor the true cost of the product she is re-selling! So, when the contractors mis-managed their (portion of the) money, it was easy for said contractor to leave Kaufmann holding the bag.

In the TreeHugger interview, Kaufmann claims it was a tightening of available financing. Nonsense.

Because you don't start making anything (incurring more costs) until you have money or a note guarantee for the loan, imo. You don't treat pre-fab like a normal Design / Bid/ Build project with progress payments. It has upfront costs, so you have to treat it financially like a widget-- like any other "manufactured product". You need the (up-front) capital to achieve the economy of scale. (I do, however, believe the challenges of getting to the "economies of scale" part.) You can't hope the money trickles in (to cover costs), lest the financial mechanics of such a structure work more like a ponzi scheme than manufacturing-like. It's all about cash-flow, baby !

If her fabricator couldn't get a loan (to capitalize), they could have shown the bankers that the customers had the loan and/or cash. With money in hand (as a promissory note -- not just a lousy $3-5K down payment, from the customer's bank), that would be enough to finance each home-- if only home by home, one at a time (with some SERIOUS financial penalties/deposit forfeitures should the customers back out once construction/manufacturing has started.) Hey, even though it's a widget, it's not like it's got the mere cost of a toaster or something.

If Kaufmann's customers couldn't get a loan, then it's not on her (as architect) to continue the transaction, ever. No money, no sale, no start of production. She shouldn't have been on the hook for any of it, in my opinion (otherwise, she is basically guaranteeing a product be delivered as the pre-fab home retailer AND designer.)

I don't find Kaufmann's explanation about the financing difficulties reasonable either -- not because credit wasn't tight, but because regardless of the economic climate, one doesn't take on risk (and unnecessary costs) without a promissory in hand (i.e. the loan approved), cash (a sizable down payment to cover costs) or the money in escrow.

Even if the bank wouldn't finance the home owners for pre-fab, she could have gone to a more traditional build method and hired a contractor to build parts off-site the more traditional way (in a garage or warehouse). That surely would have gotten "traditional" financing. It wouldn't have been 100% pre-fab, but they could have done a "component build", which is still more-or-less "pre-fab" credible. Her contracts with her customers should have given her the latitude to do just that. And if her customers didn't have the credit nor the cash to provide such a down payment, again, you don't start the job! It's not MK's role to finance the customer's dream (i.e. assume the majority of the financial risk.)

Knowing that it only takes about $200K (or less) for a GC to build a 1900SF home the traditional way, it's not clear to me how you can burn thru $500K (avg. sales cost) PER HOME (pre-orders, promissory notes, a loan) on a system that is suppose to SAVE money and save costs to the BUILDERS (due to pre-fab, pre-purchase material agreements, factory economies, etc.). It makes no sense.

Thus, I think the pre-fab contractors lied to her. They had to have inflated the actual costs . (And frankly, I bet the pre-fab contractor burned through the money he received-- but NOT on expenses directly related to the actual projects under contract. And if the down payments or progress payments from customers weren't enough to cover initial expenses, that structural business fault (no pun intended) lies with the MK business-- not the credit availability climate.

Hell, you could still build that same house via traditional on-site means for the same amount of money (not more.) $500K?

I know from working with major national chains, when you use a repeat material en masse, you negotiate (like futures) the material cost for a set volume of material in advance. It's a way to guarantee sales for the supplier, and control costs for the builder. It appears Kaufmann may have done that with some suppliers so as to control costs. However, did she negotiate the costs, or was that task left up to the pre-fab contractor? was that under his legal obligation? or hers?

How much of the built-in costs did Kaufmann really know about? (She should have known about every piece of material down to the cost of each nail.) By negotiating many of the material costs in advance with suppliers, Kaufmann should have been able to offer incentives to buyers to stick w/ the pre-negotiated options. It appears this may have been the case, so it is even MORE baffling as to why this didn't help them control costs (enabling them to increase profitability and cash reserves).

Kaufmann's bankruptcy is a shame, because she is a great designer, but her business explanation doesn't make business sense.

This underscores MY POINTS (in previous ShantyWorld posts) that costs and reliability rests mostly on the contractor as to how well (or poorly) the home building experience goes for the home owner. I feel contractors have artificially (greedily) inflated the cost of home building -- not architects. Builders have behaved very DETROIT-like in how they market and price homes. Home pricing has a lot less to do with how architects design homes, than how much greed is inherent with the selected contractor.

Or, perhaps Kaufmann's major mistake was thinking the pre-fab companies would be as conscientious (and fair minded) as she is. Residential Builders aren't. Almost never. In fact, the factory assembly of homes SHOULD be a profit incentive for builders. Apparently, builders are too accustomed to the greedy way they marked up $160K homes and sold them for $400-800K. Sorry, boys, those days (I hope) are over.

Trusting the pre-fab contractor was Kaufmann's mistake. You don't put millions of dollars on the line without:

a) money being in escrow, enough that people won't just walk away from it, or

b) cash on hand that is verifiable (the contractor's money via bond, and the home owners' via loan approval);

c) your own cash on hand to cover the risk (because people lie);

d) never tie your business risk (and profit) as architect to the CONTRACTOR's ability to fulfill HIS financial obligations.

Guess what (?) Most residential contractors don't care (about you)!! They just file bankruptcy and move on to the next home owner who doesn't do proper due-diligence.

I know I am speculating here about the mechanics of what happened. If Michelle wants to yell at me or post a reply, that would be great. We would all be happy to have her shed some light on what actually happened-- free of spin yet (more) truthful about what could (or should) have happened differently. The closing of her venture is not what architects and environmentalists want for the nation, nor the world. Kaufmann's closing is a tremendous loss for all of us.

Yet, there is no economic reason why pre-fab shouldn't work in the USA. It is builders, mortgage companies and realtors who have been sabotaging affordable housing. This bad behavior is costing Americans quality homes-- much in the way the Big-3 auto management culture sabotaged quality, energy efficient American-built cars.

No economy can sustain a model for pricing housing as if housing is seen and treated as a luxury item available to the highest bidder. [Read ShantyWorld's post on what is wrong with Housing Valuation (i.e. costs) in the USA.]

Precisely because shelter is a basic human need, we have to discard these notions about trying to leverage our homes in a manner which will afford each owner a luxurious lifestyle and a net worth that is perpetually growing (environment be damned and debt levels be damned.) That is not the purpose of shelter and that economic model is not sustainable for any nation. Have Americans yet learned this lesson, or will we continue to exhaust all options before arriving at the proper solution: affordable, sustainable housing instead of McMansions ?

- Also read the ShantyWorld.com inaugural post (from 2006) on what is wrong with housing in America. See what we predicted would happen to the USA housing market (before it actually happened.)

©Shantyworld.com 2009. All Rights reserved.