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Business
See other Business Articles

Title: Warren Buffett's mobile home empire preys on the poor
Source: The Center for Public Integrity
URL Source: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015 ... -mobile-home-empire-preys-poor
Published: Apr 4, 2015
Author: Mike Baker
Post Date: 2015-04-04 16:38:01 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 10089
Comments: 51

Billionaire profits at every step,
from building to selling to high cost lending

Editor's note: This is a joint investigation of The Center for Public Integrity and The Seattle Times.

Denise Pitts walked into the pawn shop not far from where she bought her mobile home in Knoxville, Tennessee, and offered up her wedding rings for $100. Her marriage wasn’t over, but her husband was battling cancer and, Pitts said, her mortgage company told her the only way to keep a roof over his head would be to sell everything else.

Across the country in Ephrata, Washington, Kirk and Patricia Ackley sat down to close on a new mobile home, only to learn that the annual interest on their loan would be 12.5 percent rather than the 7 percent they said they had been promised. They went ahead because they had spent $11,000, most of their savings, to dig a foundation.

And near Bug Tussle, Alabama, Carol Carroll has been paying down her home for more than a decade but still owes nearly 90 percent of the sale price — and more than twice what the home is worth.

The families’ dealers and lenders went by different names — Luv Homes, Clayton Homes, Vanderbilt, 21st Mortgage. Yet the disastrous loans that threaten them with homelessness or the loss of family land stem from a single company: Clayton Homes, the nation’s biggest homebuilder, which is controlled by its second-richest man — Warren Buffett.

Buffett’s mobile home empire promises low-income Americans the dream of homeownership. But Clayton relies on predatory sales practices, exorbitant fees, and interest rates that can exceed 15 percent, trapping many buyers in loans they can’t afford and in homes that are almost impossible to sell or refinance, an investigation by The Center for Public Integrity and The Seattle Times has found.

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#1. To: Willie Green (#0)

Very long and excellent article on Buffet's scam empire.

Deadly oil trains and scamming poor people with mobile homes.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-04   18:20:13 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Willie Green (#0)

Let buffet gloat now, let him profit now, for one day, he like all, will face the judgement of Christ.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

BobCeleste  posted on  2015-04-04   19:02:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Willie Green, TooConservative, BobCeleste (#0)

About a year or two ago Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
bought up a few real estate brokers around these parts.
Berkshire Hathaway signs are pretty much all you see
these days on for sale/lease real estate.

Residential - commercial, doesn't matter.
They've got it all, mostly.

Chuck_Wagon  posted on  2015-04-04   21:48:46 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Chuck_Wagon (#3)

I wonder how many mobile home parks he owns as well?

The scam usually starts out with the sale of the home and a year or two of cheap space rent.

Then the rape begins.

VxH  posted on  2015-04-04   22:04:43 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: TooConservative (#1)

Very long and excellent article on Buffet's scam empire.

Capitalism is a scam.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-04   22:13:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: VxH (#4)

Then the rape begins.

Hey, he deals with quarter million and up homes around here.
Whatever he can turn a buck or few on is the issue IMO.

Chuck_Wagon  posted on  2015-04-04   22:20:40 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Pericles (#5)

Capitalism is a scam.

You mean unlike communism,that promises you that you can share in everyone else's wealth and they will be happy to share with you?

Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)

sneakypete  posted on  2015-04-05   5:30:17 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Chuck_Wagon (#6)

Hey, he deals with quarter million and up homes around here. Whatever he can turn a buck or few on is the issue IMO.

But.....but....but,he HATES greed and wants everybody to have "free" health insurance!

If there is one thing Billionaires love to do,it's lose money. If you don't believe me,just ask Soros or Buffett.

Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)

sneakypete  posted on  2015-04-05   5:32:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: sneakypete (#8)

If there is one thing Billionaires love to do,it's lose money. If you don't believe me,just ask Soros or Buffett.

Actually, they don't mind losing money if they can make the business climate more hostile to competitors so they can ultimately expand their holdings and domination of a given market sector.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-05   7:15:12 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: TooConservative, sneakypete (#9)

Actually, they don't mind losing money if they can make the business climate more hostile to competitors so they can ultimately expand their holdings and domination of a given market sector.

True.

The dreck of liberal movies, tee-bee shows, and "news" like MSNBC are proof of your theory. They can't be making any money initially, but what the flood of dreck (and lack of choice) does is create a monopoly. Even though they are superior and the population is at least 50% conservative, how many conservative themed TV shows and movies are produced? Minimal. Hollywood is hostile to conservatives -- everyone knows that.

Furthermore, dominant liberal producers within "music" industry took an initial hit 25 years when they surgically eliminated several genres of actual listenable music by foisting rap "talent" upon the culture. And now? They've whittled down the competition/market -- you can count the pop culture genres of "music" on your hand (as rap is still going strong.)

Liberator  posted on  2015-04-05   7:42:26 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: Pericles (#5)

Capitalism is a scam.

So you oppose free markets and merit earnings while supporting a monstrous dictatorial bureaucratic central gubmint?

You must be soooo sad Cuba might be open to capitalism.

Liberator  posted on  2015-04-05   7:46:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: Pericles, Liberator (#5)

Capitalism is a scam.

Crony capitalism is, certainly.

A properly and lightly regulated capitalism is not.

Capitalism is also disruptive to inefficient and outmoded monopolies. And that is why it is responsible for most human advancement. It is also why the socialist and communist economies always fail, stewing in the fetid bureaucracies they spawn.

A monopoly created and mandated by the government is not substantially better than a private sector monopoly. But a government monopoly is much harder to disrupt in order to create something newer, better, more efficient.

And even crony capitalism is better than communism. Look at China. It isn't communist economic dogma that powered their rapid economic expansion, comrade.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-05   8:15:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: sneakypete (#7)

Capitalism is a scam.

You mean unlike communism,that promises you that you can share in everyone else's wealth and they will be happy to share with you?

You assume being anti-capitalist is being pro communist - it is not.

Capitalism produced communism. They are the yin and yang of economics.

Also, people mis-identify the market supply and demand system with capitalism. It is not the same system.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-05   14:38:29 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: Liberator (#11)

Capitalism is a scam. So you oppose free markets and merit earnings while supporting a monstrous dictatorial bureaucratic central gubmint?

You must be soooo sad Cuba might be open to capitalism.

Capitalism is not the free market. Maybe for people with little education the word "capitalism" is now synonymous with the free market but that is really not the case.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-05   14:40:05 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: Pericles (#13)

Capitalism produced communism.

No. Capitalism creates opportunity. Communism was created by people like you.

A K A Stone  posted on  2015-04-05   14:40:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: TooConservative (#12)

You mistake capitalism with the free market. That capitalism is better than communism is true but not the issue. I did not bring up communism once. Why is the knee jerk reaction of Americans that it has to be either capitalism or communism?

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-05   14:42:18 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#17. To: A K A Stone (#15) (Edited)

Capitalism produced communism.

No. Capitalism creates opportunity. Communism was created by people like you.

No, capitalism does not create opportunity because of lack of capital limits opportunity regardless of merit.

The free market creates opportunity.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-05   14:43:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#18. To: All (#17)

A free market is one that is not regulated by government, but rather driven by demand and supply. The free market theory contends that an ideal free market is where entities are exchanged voluntarily after a seller and buyer mutually agree on a price, without any intervention from external influences.

Capitalism and Free market economy are somewhat entwined as one is an integral part of the other. However, in their true definitions they differ .While capitalism refers more to the production of wealth, the term free market dwells more on the exchange of wealth in various methods. Capital is an essential basic element for both capitalism and free market economies. However, free competition is not an essential element of capitalism but of ‘free markets’. This is because in capitalism, capital owners have a lot of dominance over the means of production and as such may yield unfair influence.

Read more: Difference Between Capitalism and Free market | Difference Between | Capitalism vs Free market http://www.differencebetween.net/business/difference-between-capitalism-and-free-market/#ixzz3WSipWsYK

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-05   14:50:37 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#19. To: Pericles (#17)

No, capitalism does not create opportunity because of lack of capital limits opportunity regardless of merit.

You work. Then you have capital to invest in a business. You can start a business for a hundred bucks.

A K A Stone  posted on  2015-04-05   18:36:09 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: A K A Stone (#19)

No, capitalism does not create opportunity because of lack of capital limits opportunity regardless of merit.

You work. Then you have capital to invest in a business. You can start a business for a hundred buc

Have you actually read any economics books or do you just get info from talk radio?

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-05   21:48:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#21. To: Pericles (#20)

...or do you just get info from talk radio?

Yes.

Fred Mertz  posted on  2015-04-05   22:21:45 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#22. To: Pericles (#16)

You mistake capitalism with the free market. That capitalism is better than communism is true but not the issue. I did not bring up communism once. Why is the knee jerk reaction of Americans that it has to be either capitalism or communism?

Then what are you proposing that is neither capitalism nor communism?

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-06   0:10:00 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#23. To: A K A Stone, Fred Mertz, Pericles (#19)

You work. Then you have capital to invest in a business. You can start a business for a hundred bucks.

In many states, a small business license (if one is needed) and getting a state business tax number is even cheaper than that.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-06   0:20:29 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#24. To: TooConservative (#22)

All I am doing is making it clear that people should not assume capitalism is good. When the USA was founded there was no capitalism (it is a by product of industrialization). People kind of forget that and blows their mind a little bit - especially since capitalism has become the stand in word for what America's economic theory stands for amongst the illiterate masses.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-06   0:45:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#25. To: Pericles (#24)

All I am doing is making it clear that people should not assume capitalism is good. When the USA was founded there was no capitalism (it is a by product of industrialization). People kind of forget that and blows their mind a little bit - especially since capitalism has become the stand in word for what America's economic theory stands for amongst the illiterate masses.

Answer the question: what economic system are you proposing that is not communist or capitalist? Apparently we're all talk radio idiots that think those are the only two possibilities so tell us what the other choices are.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-06   0:48:57 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#26. To: TooConservative (#25) (Edited)

The Social Market is a good choice. Let me see how many think that means socialism because it has social in its name.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-06   0:53:57 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#27. To: Pericles (#26)

The Social Market is a good choice.

Market capitalism with social insurance (ObamaCare).

We already have it, however stupidly implemented.

It's still capitalism.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-06   0:58:28 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#28. To: TooConservative (#27) (Edited)

The Social Market is a good choice. Market capitalism with social insurance (ObamaCare).

We already have it, however stupidly implemented.

It's still capitalism.

I did not say the USA was not capitalist. I just don't accept capitalism is good on its own nor that it is the defining trait of America's economy. It is part of the economy but is not and should not be the basis of the economy.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-06   1:01:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#29. To: Pericles (#20)

No, capitalism does not create opportunity because of lack of capital limits opportunity regardless of merit. You work. Then you have capital to invest in a business. You can start a business for a hundred buc

Have you actually read any economics books or do you just get info from talk radio?

cap·i·tal·ism ÈkapYdlÌizYm/ noun an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

A K A Stone  posted on  2015-04-06   1:24:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#30. To: A K A Stone (#29)

You do know a dictionary is not a book on economics, right?

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-06   1:52:42 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#31. To: Pericles, A K A Stone (#30)

You do know a dictionary is not a book on economics, right?

And you know that you still have not answered what economic system you prefer to capitalism or communism, right?

Just tell us what your preferred system is.

Tooconservative  posted on  2015-04-06   3:12:20 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#32. To: Willie Green (#0)

"only to learn that the annual interest on their loan would be 12.5 percent rather than the 7 percent they said they had been promised."

Promised? More like "estimated". After the bank ran a credit check they got the rate they qualified for.

"They went ahead because they had spent $11,000, most of their savings, to dig a foundation."

Wow. An $11,000 foundation for a "mobile" home.

misterwhite  posted on  2015-04-06   9:23:37 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#33. To: TooConservative (#31)

I answered the social market. Why? Because unfettered capitalism is a scam and always has been.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-06   9:23:58 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#34. To: Pericles (#33)

answered the social market. Why? Because unfettered capitalism is a scam and always has been.

Pericles. The enemy of freedom.

Why do you hate freedom so much?

A K A Stone  posted on  2015-04-06   9:44:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#35. To: A K A Stone (#34) (Edited)

Pericles. The enemy of freedom.

Why do you hate freedom so much?

Who says you are free under capitalism? Anyone who is an employee is not master of his destiny. In Greek the term for slave and employee were interchangeable.

Pericles  posted on  2015-04-06   12:14:11 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#36. To: Pericles (#35)

Who says you are free under capitalism?

I say so. Because in capitalism the money is in the hands of the people not the government.

An employee and a slave are different.

Anyone can work for themselves. Someone can clean houses and make 25 bucks an hour no problemo.

A K A Stone  posted on  2015-04-06   17:00:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#37. To: TooConservative (#9)

Actually, they don't mind losing money if they can make the business climate more hostile to competitors so they can ultimately expand their holdings and domination of a given market sector.

Using predatory business practices to drive competitors out of business is how both got to where they are now.

Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)

sneakypete  posted on  2015-04-06   19:15:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#38. To: Pericles (#13)

You assume being anti-capitalist is being pro communist - it is not.

The only other economic systems I am aware of is fascism and the feudal System,

Communism is nothing but a upside down feudal system,and fascism is nothing but communism that has evolved.

Please educate me if you are aware of another system.

Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)

sneakypete  posted on  2015-04-06   19:27:01 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#39. To: Pericles (#18)

he free market theory contends that an ideal free market is where entities are exchanged voluntarily after a seller and buyer mutually agree on a price, without any intervention from external influences.

ROFLMAO! Who came up with that theory,the Easter Bunny? There are very good reasons that is only a theory and will never be a reality.

EVERYTHING is influenced by external interventions.

It's rare to see an anarchist over 12 years old. You must teach school. Nobody else that is an adult is so sheltered they believe crap like that.

Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)

sneakypete  posted on  2015-04-06   19:32:04 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#40. To: Pericles (#24)

All I am doing is making it clear that people should not assume capitalism is good. When the USA was founded there was no capitalism (it is a by product of industrialization).

Where did you learn that nonsense? You should sue them and get your tuition money back.

Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)

sneakypete  posted on  2015-04-06   19:33:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  



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