The subject today is affordable housing.
A question frequently asked is, can affordable housing be increased?
The answer is yes it can. Old homes become available, needing repair or upgrade, and can be purchased for good prices.
The homes cost less than when they were built. Upgrades and repairs increase the prices, but can be recovered in later years. Rent can be based on need, rather than return on investment. People can stay in their old neighborhood.
Individuals can invest in affordable housing and provide whatever is needed.
In the early 1900s, textile companies came to the Albemarle area. The one thing that they needed was labor.
Affordable housing was one thing that could attract labor. It gave a family a home of their own. The textile companies needed labor to build the affordable housing, labor to build the textile plants and to operate those plants.
The textile companies furnished the management and capital and the people furnished the labor.
I was born in 1934. I was not old enough to know what was going on, but I remember that it was pretty good. The war then came, and we learned how to save and how to get the most use out of things.
Some of the men who went to the war did not come back. That was sad. Some of the ones who did come back were wounded in different ways. Some came back that were not hurt at all.
The men that did come back could do almost anything, and they liked doing it.
They were alive. They could build wooden houses, brick houses, repair cars, trucks and tractors. Some of them drove trucks, some became farmers and others started businesses of their own.
Since I have been retired, I have been studying some liberal arts subjects.
The first time that I read some of the writings of Aristotle, I found it to be very difficult. I just did not think the way that he did.
After several times reading it again, I found it a lot more clear.
The point here is that without an understanding of Aristotle’s writings on virtue, the good and happiness and other subjects, a discourse on affordable housing would take on a different meaning.

Retired Lt. Col.
Reather C. Furr Jr.
Albemarle