Well, as far as I can tell, that would be the Amish in and around Elkhart County. I live outside Bristol in Elkhart County as well, but do most of my business in Illinois and north eastern Indiana. The Amish here have gotten very integrated into the RV industry over the years, and their lives and lifestyles have reflected that. Used to be that when the Amish borrowed money, they went through the Amish bank, or community. I don't think thats necessarily true anymore. I can't see that they're entirely self sufficient and supporting anymore. Lots and lots of Amish between me and my brother down south in Millersburg and I've gotta tell you that I've been seeing things on them Amish homes over the years that I never used to see. Big homes with vinyl siding, trim around custom windows, pickups out in the drive, things that I never used to see. Thats their business, not mine, but I think that they got pretty caught up in the $$$ of the now non-existent RV industry.
True story that folks can learn a lesson from, Elkhart County and how government bailouts do not do much more than postpone the inevitable, so its best to just allow the economy to run its natural course.
Politics aside, here's the deal: Like former President Bush or not, he gave us folks in Elkhart County like the rest of the country didn't get and won't. Here's what happened, and God strike me dead if I'm lying, but its the truth. Elkhart County got its first government bailout in the form of Hurricane Katrina. Think back to the time when Katrina hit the gulf coast, and the fuel prices were already at or just above the $2.00 per gallon mark. That's when the RV industry started its decline because lets face it, motorhomes don't get the best milage, pulling travel trailers don't get pickups the best milage, and you get the idea. RV sales were already dropping off when Katrina hit, and folks in and around Elkhart County were already losing their jobs for it. Remember how much trouble FEMA and George Bush got into for their slow reaction over aid and support to the victims of Katrina? Deserved or not, it happened and they got lots of bad press. What happened then is that FEMA came into Elkhart County and began tossing $10's and $10's of untold $millions to turn out temp housing and stuff to get down to the gulf coast as fast as possible. Everything from small mobile homes for living quarters to motor homes for command vehicals to small enclosed trailers for hauling gear. It happened. If FEMA needed 20 trailers, they bought 40. If they needed 40, they bought 80, all to stop the bad press stories. All of a sudden folks that had been getting laid off were not only being kept on, but others were being hired with unlimited overtime to trun out as much stuff as fast as possible, all at taxpayer expense, the first mega government bailout of a single community, Elkhart and surrounding counties. Life went from bad to very lucrative over night for the RV industry, thanks to Katrina. You could not drive in or around Elkart on the interstate or loaclly without seeing FEMA stickers in or on stuff leaving Elkhart for the Gulf Coast. I'm from there, it happened. Do you remember seeing pictures on the news of miles and miles of RV stuff setting in muddy fields down on the Coast that had never even been used? Again, if 100 were needed, 200 were bought and paid for and built and then shipped to the Gulf Coast to stop the bad publicity. And then the inevitable happened, the federal $$$ dried up because there was no more need for all of that stuff, or even most of it that had already shipped and was setting unused in mud down there. Then the layoffs started all over again, and when gasoline hit $4.00 per gallon and diesel hit $4.50 per gallon, what do you suppose that did for an already severely slumping RV industry? Pretty much polished it off, that's what.
Look, I'm from there. I saw it unfolding first hand and lived through the first government taxpayer funded bailout of them all, and saw first hand what it did. It created a false sense of security and you can drive through and around Elkhart and surrounding RV counties and see new trucks, cars, boats, homes and everything for sale as folks lose everything. BUT, THERE IS A LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM WHAT HAPPENED IN ELKHART, ONE THAT HAS BEEN TOTALLY IGNORED BY THE NEWS MEDIA NOT FOCUSING ON ELKHART AS THEY DO NATIONAL STORIES ABOUT ELKHART. And that is that government bailouts postpone the inevitable and cost taxpayers and our economy dearly in the long run. I'm from Elkhart County, and its ground zero, the poster child for how government bailouts fail in the long run. It was that labratory for failed bailouts that the rest of our nation never really got to see, but God help us, we will when it comes time to start paying back all of the debt and printing money to cover money that we don't have in the first place. I'm from Elkhat County, unlike the NY Times, Katie Couric, Tom Brokaw or anyone else telling the story of Elkhart County and doesn't have the first clue. I'm an insider of Elkart County, and have been all 50 years of my life. They are not and will never be, politics aside.
Good luck and may God bless, and may you all learn from our mistakes, don't recreate them for yourselves.
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