The facts are quite the opposite. "Americans tend to think of their middle class as being the richest in the world, but it turns out, in terms of wealth, they rank fairly low among major industrialized countries," said Edward Wolff, a New York University economics professor who studies net worth."

Median net worth for middle class Americans is approximately $45,000. We rank 19th in the world. If you look at all Americans, the number is $301,000 (4th). This number is highly skewed because of the very to ultra rich (Bill Gates types). Disposable income is dandy for the rich, but not so wonderful for the middle class and below.

If this is true, please explain the results from this study.

"Americans devote more money to enjoying the outdoors than buying gasoline, purchasing pharmaceutical drugs, or owning cars. More than 44 percent of us make outdoor recreation a priority, adding up to an annual economic impact of $646 billion, according to a recent report by the Outdoor Industry Association. (By comparison, Americans buy $354 billion worth of gas and other fuels.)"

http://www.takepart.com/article/2013...doors-gasoline

Read the full report he http://outdoorindustry.org/advocacy/...n/economy.html

The availability of cash to be spent on discretionary activity is not the problem and never will be. The economic argument is just an easy way out and takes the burden off of us, the soaring community, for not being able to figure out how to improve the product, adapt to a changing demographic, compete with the almost unlimited competition for participants, and recognizing our own failure to be successful in building the sport.

Cash does play some part in developing a program and and we have also failed to raise this capitol which is a failure of the community. Would each soaring pilot, once every year, be willing to donate the cost of one tow to develop a program to bring in new pilots and help retain those who have a ticket but do not fly?

In simpler economic terms, if the sport has no growth and attrition and natural causes erode the population of soaring pilots, every glider is now almost worthless. There is nobody to sell it to; no buyers. Even if gliders are traded amongst the current pool, there will soon be a glut of ships and the value will plummet to the same as my glider sitting in the yard is now, a future flower pot and relic.

The economic argument also gives the community an excuse to not try. Growing a sport or activity requires the same amount of effort as starting a business; the business of growing an activity. This is extremely entrepreneurial and entrepreneurs fail very often. Writers very often fail go find a published but when they do the results can be huge.

If the community stops trying the failure of the activity is almost guaranteed. If certain failure is the outcome what harm is there in trying?

Volunteerism also has its limits. People will gladly volunteer some time but when the volunteer commitment cuts into family or career the volunteerism is curtailed. The volunteers burn out trying to do two (or more) jobs' one makes them money to live, the other eats time. Money can be replaced; time cannot.

The economic issue is not with the potential soaring pilot, the economic issue is with the current community not being willing to spend money to find new pilots.

There are many great ideas being kicked around here. We need to find the cash to fund a program so the person running the program can earn a living and devote themselves without having to make a choice of where to spend their time.


I think the problem is entirely our own pessimism.[/quote]

Amen! This often becomes self fulfilling.

Threads like this are optimistic and insightful. Thank you all for contributing and please keep doing so.