The Artificial US Housing Crisis: Wealth Funnels & Constraints

At the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we have the most fundamental: food, clothing, and shelter. In this video, we discuss a 50 year old law that keeps you poor, exploiting the fundamental need for shelter—a home. The US housing crisis is almost entirely artificial—here, we will show that this artificial crisis is almost entirely downstream from a 1974 law that successfully targeted and sidelined the highly competitive, innovative, and economic disparity shattering industry of factory-produced manufactured homes (modular homes). Here, we explore the downstream effects from the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act—more commonly known as the HUD Code. Further, we explore the effects that this law has had on generational wealth inequality and the profound effect that constraining the housing supply has had on boosting the net worth of the Baby Boomer generation. Although highly lucrative for some, this structural wealth funnel risks fueling a continued spiral of wealth inequality and disparity.