The Airport Fence

EridanMan writes:

For the past five years, my strata has been obsessed with real
estate. All spare resources dedicated to latching on to every-
increasing property values.

Sounds like a stratum of gamblers, eager to get something for nothing.

The best reason for buying land is to have it, not to resell it.

This past year, that has utterly died...
Those of us who still have not bought have realized we will not be
buying for a few years until housing prices return to some semblance
of sanity (fundamentals), and even those who did buy are cashing out
now while they're still above water.

Land speculation, like the stock market, is legalized gambling.

The result has been more funds available for something other than real-
estate among my local upper-middle-class peers. For many of them,
this is the first time in their life they've had any income
'surplus,', having been dragged by the real estate boom from basically
the start of their professional careers. Take a surplus of money, add
an engineer mentality that _adores_ its toys and loves 'out there'
hobbies and experiences, and I think the resurgence of aviation in
Silicon Valley is hardly surprising.

That's the key: a surplus of money. Something that most people in the U.S. no
longer have. The vast middle class that once existed and had enough extra
cash to do interesting things is being driven out of existence, and what
remains are the very wealthy and those living at subsistence levels--very
similar to the late 19th century, in fact.

I'm in NO WAY saying that this particular region is indicative of the
rest of the country, nor do I believe that the growth in bay area
Aviation can in any way offset losses throughout 'bread and butter'
America. I'm just saying that the picture isn't _ALL_ bleak.

There will always be someplace where GA is healthy. But unless those areas
don't plan to ever undertake flights anywhere else, you do need a certain
critical mass of GA in order to justify and/or pay for infrastructure.