Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 5, 2005 at about 11pm CST - Segment 2
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 5, 2005 at about 11pm CST
Segment 2
Last week's project for social change was to have Habitat for Humanity build an extra 100000 houses per year nationwide. No one was interested in that project. Well, maybe no one was interested in what I was saying so they did not get online and check out my blog for specifics. You have a chance to do that now.
The big issue is increasing the number of houses that Habitat for Humanity provides for low income families. As I said last week, and you didn't hear because no one listened, what if you built the house on a moving frame close to a football game or a baseball game or a basketball game or some other sporting event. You DID know that there is an industry that moves old houses from one place and puts them on new foundations. Well, why not build the house on a moving frame near a game and then move it to its final foundation?
The basic idea here is that a huge number of people go to sporting events. People over the years have lamented that we can spend a gazillion dollars on sports stadiums, but not a penny on relieving the plight of the poor. What if we asked people going to sporting events to volunteer to build houses for the poor? Do the math. How many professional sports stadiums are there for football, basketball and baseball? Now, how many college sports stadiums are there for football, basketball and baseball? Semi-pro? Why not? High school? Interesting concept that? Then you have to do the math on how many people actually attend such events and assume that between 1% and 0.1% of the people would be interested in doing the project. I don't know about you, but that looks like to me that both of those numbers are kind of large. You divide the number of stadiums into 100000 to see how many houses per stadium you could produce, then you divide 100000 by the number of people who might participate in the project.
When you do that, you can see that the project is doable. BUT can it be done in the real world?
Plus there is one other aspect of this project that you should consider. People going to ball games are not holding onto their money as tightly as at other times in their lives. People going to sports events would be more likely to donate to a project like this, IF it was associated with the team. Think about it. What if you as a sports fan could say, "Yeah, my team had an 0-50 season last year, but there are 50 families that have a good house to live in. I know, because I help build one of them." It adds an interesting dimension to the concept of being a fan, does it not? I mean, your team can stink, but your home builders could be better than the other team's house builders. Wouldn't you donate your money, if you couldn't donate your time?
I thought about a prototype for this project. It seems kind of stupid to have a project this size without doing a test of the concept.
Four states were hit by Katrina and Rita. Houses were leveled or destroyed or both. Why can't each state in the Union build four houses and ship them over the Interstate highway system to the affected states: Texas, Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama? What part of ‘E Pluribus Unum' do you not understand? I perceive that we are either committed to ‘E Pluribus Unum' or we are not. I know, Hawaii would be kind of hard, but, hey, you ask a master craftsman shipper how he would get four Habitat houses from Hawaii to say San Diego or San Francisco and he should be able to tell you.
There's an interesting add-on to this project. A house cannot be moved directly to its foundation in the affected state. There will be intermediate stops. Why not raise money for Habitat at each stop? I mean, New York can show off it's house in Kentucky or Tennessee or wherever they stop along the way and raises money for Habitat. Wouldn't that be fun?
I went through a large number of reasons why people would want to help out and build a house.
I need some help getting this up and running. Please get involved. People keep complaining that there are so MANY social problems in this country. They want the government or someone else or the tooth fairy to fix the problem. I say, "Life is a full contact sport." You have to get involved to make positive social change. The government has proven itself to be incapable of doing much of anything. Come on help me whitewash this fence. It'll be fun... maybe.
Segment 2
Last week's project for social change was to have Habitat for Humanity build an extra 100000 houses per year nationwide. No one was interested in that project. Well, maybe no one was interested in what I was saying so they did not get online and check out my blog for specifics. You have a chance to do that now.
The big issue is increasing the number of houses that Habitat for Humanity provides for low income families. As I said last week, and you didn't hear because no one listened, what if you built the house on a moving frame close to a football game or a baseball game or a basketball game or some other sporting event. You DID know that there is an industry that moves old houses from one place and puts them on new foundations. Well, why not build the house on a moving frame near a game and then move it to its final foundation?
The basic idea here is that a huge number of people go to sporting events. People over the years have lamented that we can spend a gazillion dollars on sports stadiums, but not a penny on relieving the plight of the poor. What if we asked people going to sporting events to volunteer to build houses for the poor? Do the math. How many professional sports stadiums are there for football, basketball and baseball? Now, how many college sports stadiums are there for football, basketball and baseball? Semi-pro? Why not? High school? Interesting concept that? Then you have to do the math on how many people actually attend such events and assume that between 1% and 0.1% of the people would be interested in doing the project. I don't know about you, but that looks like to me that both of those numbers are kind of large. You divide the number of stadiums into 100000 to see how many houses per stadium you could produce, then you divide 100000 by the number of people who might participate in the project.
When you do that, you can see that the project is doable. BUT can it be done in the real world?
Plus there is one other aspect of this project that you should consider. People going to ball games are not holding onto their money as tightly as at other times in their lives. People going to sports events would be more likely to donate to a project like this, IF it was associated with the team. Think about it. What if you as a sports fan could say, "Yeah, my team had an 0-50 season last year, but there are 50 families that have a good house to live in. I know, because I help build one of them." It adds an interesting dimension to the concept of being a fan, does it not? I mean, your team can stink, but your home builders could be better than the other team's house builders. Wouldn't you donate your money, if you couldn't donate your time?
I thought about a prototype for this project. It seems kind of stupid to have a project this size without doing a test of the concept.
Four states were hit by Katrina and Rita. Houses were leveled or destroyed or both. Why can't each state in the Union build four houses and ship them over the Interstate highway system to the affected states: Texas, Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama? What part of ‘E Pluribus Unum' do you not understand? I perceive that we are either committed to ‘E Pluribus Unum' or we are not. I know, Hawaii would be kind of hard, but, hey, you ask a master craftsman shipper how he would get four Habitat houses from Hawaii to say San Diego or San Francisco and he should be able to tell you.
There's an interesting add-on to this project. A house cannot be moved directly to its foundation in the affected state. There will be intermediate stops. Why not raise money for Habitat at each stop? I mean, New York can show off it's house in Kentucky or Tennessee or wherever they stop along the way and raises money for Habitat. Wouldn't that be fun?
I went through a large number of reasons why people would want to help out and build a house.
I need some help getting this up and running. Please get involved. People keep complaining that there are so MANY social problems in this country. They want the government or someone else or the tooth fairy to fix the problem. I say, "Life is a full contact sport." You have to get involved to make positive social change. The government has proven itself to be incapable of doing much of anything. Come on help me whitewash this fence. It'll be fun... maybe.
posted by aRandomTexan at
6:38 AM
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