I am compelled today to illustrate what we’ve become in this country. I just can’t stay silent, for when I try, as Jeremiah said, “It burns in my heart like a fire, like a fire in my bones.” So I must share this article. I will illustrate to you how easily we could solve the housing crisis, and the “affordability of life” crisis, but instead, Americans have overwhelmingly chosen to addict themselves to materialism, luxury, pleasure, and debt. I will also illustrate how corrupt and incompetent politicians and city governments have become, to purposely overregulate our lives, so as to rob us of genuine freedom, making it extremely difficult for many people to achieve financial success.
Did you know building codes, permit fees, and regulations alone add almost $93,000 to the cost of a new home today?! $93,000!! That’s obscene. It is absolutely criminal and corrupt! As Proverbs says, “A wicked ruler is as dangerous to the poor as a lion or a bear attacking them.”
Let me ask you a question. What do you value more? Your freedom and independence, or your extreme comfort and luxury, sustained by debt-slavery?
Would you be willing to live very modestly, yet have a home to live in that provides you the basics you need, while allowing you to have $1000 or more a month of financial margin in your monthly budget, or would you rather be up to your neck in debt, living under constant financial pressure and strain?
Please, take a look at these photos. These were built at Iowa State University after WW2 using the housing and materials that the US Military no longer needed for their soldiers for the war. It was called Pammel Court. They were deconstructed and put back together on a huge piece of empty land in Ames, Iowa to accommodate returning soldiers and their wives, who used the GI Bill for college. Eventually, they became married student housing units for students to attend the university. These “temporary” housing units became so valuable to couples, that they kept them up in use for 50 years! It cost only $26-$52 a month for a married couple to live here, many with children. This would be about $350 a month in today’s dollars.
I can tell you right now, my wife and I would have lived in these in a heartbeat. However, since we weren’t enrolled in college, it wasn’t an option. But when an opportunity came, we jumped at the chance to move into our $73 a month, 1963 trailer home instead! When we lived in Ames, Iowa, from 1976-1986, we had married friends at ISU that did live in those corrugated steel houses in Pammel Court. On several occasions we went to that housing area to hand out gospel literature. Just imagine if houses like this were available to rent in your city today, at a very low cost, and you could live in one of them for 6 years, enabling you to put 1-2 thousand dollars every month in your savings.
These nostalgic pictures, and this story illustrate just how insane we’ve become today. We could solve the housing crisis and the “I’m always broke” financial crisis quite easily if—1) Americans loved financial independence and freedom more than luxuries, pleasure, and extravagant stuff, and 2) city governments with their often absurd, oppressive regulations got out of the way, and allowed these kinds of homes on huge tracts of land to be built, or allowed other similar, very affordable housing options. At the very least, giving whomever wanted the option to live in something like these.
This “lifestyle approach” is how Kathy and I have gone about our entire lives all these years, serving the Lord. That’s our HUGE secret. We adopted this as our way of life. With our housing, our car, our furnishings, everything. Nothing is more important to us than our genuine freedom and independence.
I recognize of course that buying a home is one important way to build wealth for your future as a family. I fully support that concept. I am not implying in any way that it’s wrong or sinful to do so. What I’m saying is people could do this by living in homes that were much less expensive to begin with. I am saying that Americans have completely lost their perspective on how extravagant and luxurious most in America live today.
Think about this: In 1946, when these houses were put up on Iowa State University land, our men were just returning from fighting and winning the most brutal, savage war the world’s ever known. Many had been living in quarters like these as they trained for combat on military bases. Many just returned home from the battlefield, living in the most brutal conditions in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. Mud everywhere, dirt, death, grime, pestilence, ragged old tents, many sleeping on the ground, living on K-rations, in extremely difficult, oppressive conditions. They had just returned from a savage war, having won the greatest war victory in history because of their tremendous, heroic, personal sacrifices. These housing units would have seemed to many like wonderful accommodations compared to the awful conditions they’d been living in during the war years. They would’ve felt safe, tranquil, and serene compared to the sound of mortar fire, bombs, and gunfire surrounding them day and night. This “war perspective,” which their wives also possessed, gave them wonderful perspectives about starting a family, and living sacrificially to accomplish important life goals. These corrugated-steel housing units, to them, were a small price to pay to make it in life, to achieve their life and financial goals. Even the Levit & Sons houses of Levittown, that were eventually built all over America for soldiers returning from the war, were only 750-850 square feet, designed to be put up quickly, keep the costs down, and give the soldiers and their families a functional place to live. This is what we so desperately need today. We need this mentality. We need this mindset.
That has been our great secret as a couple. We Are A War Couple!
Those who love pleasure become poor; wine and luxury are not the way to riches!—God (Proverbs 21:17)
