Condo board today, country tomorrow?

I was thinking the other day about whether or not living in a community association, whether it be a condominium or non-condominium association, promoted the concept of socialism. As the president and general counsel of a community association company, the thought occurred to me.

I recall what this country was like before community associations existed. You either lived in an apartment or owned a home. Those people who lived in a townhouse structure, they were individually responsible for maintaining their own townhouse, and had no control over the neighbors. So I was told, banks were hesitant to lend money to townhouse owners, since they were concerned about the exterior maintenance appearance of such structures.

We inherited the condominium lifestyle from Mexico. Obviously, from such a lifestyle you had ownership in real estate, but less of a maintenance responsibility. You relied upon a governmental entity called the homeowner association board of directors to answer questions concerning exterior maintenance. In simple terms, you created a minor governmental bureaucracy through your community association.

Depending on how efficient that governmental entity was may have molded your thinking as to socialism versus capitalism. If you were happy with the performance of your community association governance, perhaps you were more inclined to believe that socialism was a good alternative to capitalism where one relied upon their own resources. If you were unhappy with the governance of that community association board of directors, perhaps your thinking was opposite. It would be interesting to know whether or not living in a community association regardless of whether or not it is a condominium, townhouse or single-family association molded your thought process concerning socialism v. capitalism.

Since our government grants millions of dollars to ridiculous asserted educational exercises to universities, perhaps they could authorize an amount of money to explore this thought. I suggest that the University of Florida and University of Illinois be two universities granted the money since Florida and Illinois have large populations of condominium associations. I also suggest that these universities explore the success of such community associations in Mexico, the Founding Fathers of such associations.

In conclusion, the one significant difference between living in a community association v. our government is that a community association cannot endlessly exist on deficit budgets. There must be consideration of meeting expenses with income. Perhaps our country would be better off if more congressional, senatorial and executive positions of this nation were filled by people who served on the boards of community associations, who knew what it was to maintain a balanced budget.

Steven R. Heuberger

Libertyville