Student Drop-Out Rates...why?

Imagine being a young person today faced with the high cost of
automobiles, ever increasing cost of insurance and gasoline, and the
astronomical cost of a home, and then you'll realize why adding the
cost of aviation instruction and operation is totally out of the
question for the vast majority.

Let's see, in 1994 I was a working father (at a small, local newspaper) with
a 4-year old and a new-born baby. Mary had reduced her hours to part-time
after our first child was born, so we were living on 1.3 very modest
incomes.

THAT was the time that aviation thrust itself upon me (my boss was a pilot,
and gave me the kick start I needed to get off my butt and do it!) -- when I
could least afford it. I had just enough money saved to get my ticket --
and not one nickel left over to fly on when all was said and done. But I
did it.

If I could do it, anyone can do it. It just took eating at home, forgoing
new cars, concerts, and movies, and an understanding wife (who, unbeknownst
to me at the time, was soon to become as hopelessly hooked on flying as I
was!).
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 03:43:29 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote in
BFxNe.266694$_o.53979@attbi_s71::

It just took eating at home, forgoing new cars, concerts, and movies, and ...

Enough money in a savings account to fund your flight training.

It just took eating at home, forgoing new cars, concerts, and movies, and
...

Enough money in a savings account to fund your flight training.

True enough.

But it was a paltry amount, really, compared to what my neighbor's kid just
spent on his 2005 Japanese Crotch Rocket...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

If I could do it, anyone can do it.

Bull.
The median income in the U.S. today is about $50,000. *LOTS* of people in the
States cannot afford flight training. Many more regard it as a complete waste of
money, and for them, it probably would be.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:31:55 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

If I could do it, anyone can do it.

Bull.
The median income in the U.S. today is about $50,000. *LOTS* of people in the
States cannot afford flight training. Many more regard it as a complete waste of
money, and for them, it probably would be.

Yes, I agree with you that there are a lot of people who can not
afford flight training and most of them are not in a position to
expect to do so later on. I'm excluding that portion of the
population/work force in college or just a year or two out.

What's the average? I would expect the average to be quite a bit
below the median as there are just a few very high incomes that skew
the median up. The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

What is exasperating is trying to find the average rather than the
middle number or median. The US keeps household income compared to a
median. Canada keeps it according to average. Whether higher or lower
the average is a much more meaningful number than median. I would
*guess* there are far more households making less than the median that
there are making more.

After nearly an hour and a half trying to find the average US income I
have given up.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

You need three things to fly: Time, money, and to live near an airport.

For most folks, only two are available at any given time.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Roger wrote:

The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

I would expect it to be considerably less after the off-shoring rush that got
rolling in 2003.

About 6 months ago, NPR reported that the number of jobs created for the quarter
had finally exceeded the number of jobs lost. For the first time, most of those
new jobs went to Spanish-Americans. That means that most of them pay diddly-squat.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:lUQOe.2573$IG2.1726@trndny01...
Roger wrote:

The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

I would expect it to be considerably less after the off-shoring rush that
got rolling in 2003.

About 6 months ago, NPR reported that the number of jobs created for the
quarter had finally exceeded the number of jobs lost. For the first time,
most of those new jobs went to Spanish-Americans. That means that most of
them pay diddly-squat.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

I don't think that median income is the relevent statistic. The question is
how many people is the economy creating that have enough money to buy or do
any particular thing like learing to fly AND want to do it. The economy
could still be producing record numbers of millionairs even if the average
were flat or declining. A few IPOs can significantly increase the number of
$100MM+ individuals in an area and not effect the median. You see this in
the ultra high end real estate market. The best business strategy I ever
heard was: "figure out what rich people want and provide it, they WILL buy
it. It doesn't matter how desirable something is to someone who can't
afford it or how affordable something is to someone who doesn't want it,
desire and resources have to match. Aviation doesn't appeal to many of
those who can afford it.

Mike
MU-2

It doesn't matter how desirable something is to someone who can't afford
it or how affordable something is to someone who doesn't want it, desire
and resources have to match. Aviation doesn't appeal to many of those who
can afford it.

WHY?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Aviation doesn't appeal to many of those who
can afford it.

WHY?

For the same reason that fishing doesn't.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.