Gen Xer here. Heard the same "lazy bones, slacker" complaints about my generation, too. I had the chance to teach some college courses back a few years, and my observation is this: There will always be a percentage of the population that are engaged, and the rest along for the ride. That's never going to change. My guess is that it's probably remained constant for most of "surplus civilization" through the ages.
But lets look at the cost side of the equation, and I can only go with what I know:
A private ticket in 1987-90 was probably around $3000-3500. 152s were $40/hr and 172s. At my airport, they were less expensive if you joined "the club". But using that number, 152s should run around $83/hr and $100/hr in today's dollars.
Let's assume that your PVT cost $3000 in 1987. That same money is about $6500 today. The actual number today is nearly, but not quite, twice that amount.
Career students, zero to hero (PVT-CFII/MEI) could expect to pay around $15-18k, or around $30-32k. Prices to day start $60k and up.
One other data point. In 1975, a reasonably equipped 182 was around $32k new (assuming reasonable avionics for the time, and "options", like fueling steps and the like). That same 182 SHOULD cost $141k today, but is closer to 3.5 times that price (albiet with much nicer avionics and the fueling steps are free). Most other aircraft were/are on the same ballistic price arc, which really started in 1982-83.
As one would expect, with such high prices, volume is low. As a comparason, a 1975 Camaro with the nice trim package (V8) and AC was $4500, which is $20k today, which today might not even get you the bottom rung model.
OTOH, lets look at the demand side: Back in 1985, you had just witnessed the transition from the single family provider to where both parents worked. I'm a child of the 70s. Dad worked, mom stayed home. Upper Middling house (by the standard of the day), meant 2000 square feet for parents and 4 kids, a couple of used cars. Not much in the way of ancillary costs beyond food and shelter. Electric, water, house payment. One TV. Eating out was a rare event. No cable bill, no cell phone bill (let alone 6), no intrawebz, no new SUVs in the driveway, no hockey coach or dance lessons.
I played little league, which had a nominal fee. Most of us went to state school, which beyond living expenses, was only marginally more expensive than the local Community College. Private College was only nominally more expensive.
My dad ran his own business. There were people doing better with less work (Drs, successful lawyers), but most of their homes and ours were only different by degrees, and not by orders of magnitude. Many people had defined benefit retirements, which required no contribution on their part, and health insurance was also provided by the employer, or available at a nominal cost (albeit the benefits were more limited than what we now see...a case of 'if you build it, they will come').
So what, Richman, what's your point? Get to it.
There is a lot of stuff about GA today that is strikingly common from 1928, 38, 48 etc. Anyone can read back issues of Flying Magazine on Google Books all the way back to 1926. To do so is to see the shock of familiarity: Pesky federal regulators, expensive equipment, ads crying about a pilot shortage and what not.
That said, people today are dying the financial death of a thousand cuts.
Every dollar spent on a hobby is a dollar less saved for retirement (which was previously covered). The transition from paid retirement to self saving is probably one of the slickest deals ever perpetrated on the American public and an unending boon to the financial services industry...free money every two weeks artificially inflate stock values tremendously.
People have to pay for insurance for overpriced medical care....they face financial ruin should they not do so, and get REALLY sick. The stampede into this care causes the providers to spiral the prices up...what are you going to do, say no?
TV/Radio/Intrawebs convince us daily of what we really need. Peer pressure causes us to force our children to expensive hobbies. College, like medical care, has spiraled in cost because people say "you HAVE to do it!".
Both parents are required to work, meaning more meals are purchased, not made.
"They" even figured out a way to separate the public from their normal equity reserve...the value of their home. I can almost hear the conversation when they came up with this: "Well Bob, the American public has a vast amount of money saved in their home....how can we extract that money and get a cut?".
Every time you turn around, it's a death by factions. Both in income and expenses.
That leads precious little money or time to spend on a hobby that has gotten exponentially more expensive.
Richman
) or the time cost is prohibitive. That's simply not true for most folks.
