{"id":18261,"date":"2021-06-26T06:50:46","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=18261"},"modified":"2021-06-26T06:50:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T13:50:46","slug":"overnight-news-habitat-for-humanity-or-habitability-for-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/18261\/overnight-news-habitat-for-humanity-or-habitability-for-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"Overnight News: \u2018Habitat For Humanity\u2019 or habitability for\u00a0humans?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ya

\u201cThe secret to avoiding \u2018accidents\u2019? Two words: Digestive enzymes.\u201d<\/p><\/div>One of my favorite Christmastime frauds, perhaps by-now socially-distanced out of existence, is the wrapped-gift bucket-brigade: On the local TV news, hundreds of ‘volunteers’ in ugly sweaters are scrunched into a wide-angle shot in which they are shown passing wrapped gifts, one to another \u2013 as if there were any reason for such anti-productivity except<\/em> the “news” coverage.<\/p>\n

That’s charity theater, and it’s not the last thing I hate about organized charity. As always with me, trim the outliers and carry them off, if you like: The people most-adept at attracting charity are hurt rather than helped by it \u2013 and the people most-interested in bestowing charity are hurt rather than helped by it. We are self-made, all of us, each<\/em> of us, since there is no contrary to internal self-motivation \u2013 this being true of all living things, not just us. The best help you can offer any stranger is to get out of his way \u2013 and you could do a lot<\/em> of that.<\/p>\n

But my contempt for charity theater has its own special home in the housing biz: Habitat For Humanity,<\/a> which painstakingly builds new homes, one at a time, for poor people it carefully segregates from the ‘volunteers’ \u2013 amateurs operating straight outta the labor-theory-of-value playbook: If I<\/em> worked on it, it must<\/em> be valuable.<\/p>\n

Ahem.<\/p>\n

The labor that goes into one of those houses, split into four-hour blocks of handyman time, could help hundreds<\/em> of families, all in one day, not just one family at a time. Even better, it would put the ‘volunteers’ into actual contact with their putative beneficiaries and\/or presumptive victims \u2013 who might, in due course, become true friends.<\/p>\n

A new garbage disposal for an old sink is not as showy as a brand new house, but it’s a great big deal if you’ve never had one: A couple hundred bucks plus labor for an instant hygiene-booster\/odor-killer for everyone nearby. That would be improved habitability for real human beings. What it wouldn’t be is a phony virtue display all dressed up for the cameras.<\/p>\n

In other news:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

CNBC:<\/strong> Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe secret to avoiding \u2018accidents\u2019? Two words: Digestive enzymes.\u201dOne of my favorite Christmastime frauds, perhaps by-now socially-distanced out of existence, is the wrapped-gift bucket-brigade: On the local TV news, hundreds of ‘volunteers’ in ugly sweaters are scrunched into a wide-angle shot in which they are shown passing wrapped gifts, one to another \u2013 as if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-group-therapy","7":"category-lending","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1024\/home-gain-helps-the-hoi-polloi-get-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":18261,"position":0},"title":"Home Gift Helps the Hoi Polloi Get Happy","author":"Brian Brady","date":"February 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a chance to talk to Mark Sennott, President of Home Gift, this week. Home Gift is an affinity marketer much like MBNA. MBNA started as a credit card marketing division of the old Maryland National Bank. Their model was to offer credit cards to alumni association members that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Real Estate","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/real-estate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3282,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3282\/casual-friday-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":18261,"position":1},"title":"Casual Friday: Caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"Because I happen to like Argyle socks, that's why!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3822,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3822\/caption-this-photo-president-bush-at-the-olympics\/","url_meta":{"origin":18261,"position":2},"title":"Caption this photo: President Bush at the Olympics","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My entry: \"A gentleman always makes eye-contact.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8385,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8385\/caption-me-this-magnum\/","url_meta":{"origin":18261,"position":3},"title":"Caption Me This Magnum","author":"Brian Brady","date":"May 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My vote?\u00a0 \"Who let Higgins in to your closet, Thomas? \" Sometimes, you just gotta have a sense of humor.","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3289,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3289\/shout-out-a-toast-to-life-abundant-and-caption-this-photo\/","url_meta":{"origin":18261,"position":4},"title":"Shout out a toast to life abundant — and caption this photo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sez me: \"Bill Gates stole this facial expression from me and I want it back!\"","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14685,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14685\/caption-obama-before-his-face-freezes-like-that\/","url_meta":{"origin":18261,"position":5},"title":"Caption Obama — before his face freezes like that.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My vote: \"I don't get it. This stunt always used to work with my Gammy.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18262,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18261\/revisions\/18262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}