Quote:
Originally Posted by Barefoot
Are you saying that the Developer who profited from selling homes in The Villages should be responsible if a home develops a sinkhole? I do understand that the financial repercussions of a sinkhole can be devastating, not only to the home owner, but to the entire neighborhood.
I'm not disagreeing with your thoughts, I'm just wondering if I understand your post.
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The developer is a businessman, not a charitable organization. He is in business to make money, period, and he does so by selling a quality product that up to this point has consistently been in high demand. I would think that most Villagers bought here in recognition of the quality of the product being offered, with sinkholes NOT being a part of the equation (and they are certainly NOT limited to TV).
Now, if as a businessman he CHOOSES to show character and compassion by offering financial support to the small handful of Villagers who are directly impacted by a sinkhole, that is entirely up to him. Think, for example, of the woman with her $21,600 sinkhole deductible reported in the
Village News, an excellent online source that is achieving higher and higher circulation and that helps balance the philosophy of the printed
Daily Sun. How many Villagers are in a position to pony up a figure like this easily? However, he is certainly not OBLIGED to do so. There is certainly precedence for highly successful business people doing so (for example, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and others with their foundations in the present; Andrew Carnegie with his libraries in the past).
However, if he is “inspired” to show character and compassion to these folks by, say, the power of the Internet and its ability to disseminate information extremely rapidly and extremely intensively affecting his sales and thus his profits, I doubt anyone with a sinkhole in her or his backyard would turn down help dealing with an extremely high deductible. Granted this would not solve the overall sinkhole problem, which goes well beyond the boundaries of TV, but it would certainly aid him in the public relations area!
Beyond this, we’re on our own, keeping in mind the point of view of Benjamin Franklin, who suggested, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately!” But that is entirely up to us….