Silvaire wrote:
The Ford Model T made cars available to everyone, circa 1920, about 15 million built and sold before 1927.
Yes and the guy who made the Model T happen was one of the 4 big ones who are now seen as the most evil capitalists by today’s standards. The question is, where would America be without them? Yes, there methods were anything but social at the time, yet the end result was. Apart from the fact that several of those people were also the biggest philantrophists of their time. Ever been to the Carnegie Hall in NY?
LeSving wrote:
In the USA nowadays, the average working class person have to have 2 or 3 jobs just to make the ends meet.
There are people in Europe too who do that. I used to do two jobs a while back, but it was my own choice as I wanted to better my situation. Yet in the US, none of the people I know there does that, other than those who are on time limited contracts anyhow, e.g. artists. For them, it is the normal way of life.
Ah yes, one friend of mine used to work 8 days a week over 2 years… in NY city. And that is normal for a guy who has the lead role in a Broadway play. After two years he hung up the mask and now does a bit of concert work before coming back hopefully to the same again.While he was doing it, he still had time to do master classes and even a concert or two. But that is because he wants to do this, not because he has to.
The others, most of them have normal 9-5 jobs. Yes, in the US, they work more and they have much less free time. But that also has to do with the fact that people there are much more ambitious in their jobs than the average workerbee here. And you don’t get up the ladder unless you do more than the guy next desk, constantly and always.
It all amounts to what Peter rightly said: If you want to better your situation, the way to do it is to take your finger out of where the sun don’t shine and get on with it.
LeSving wrote:
My “vision” for GA is that anybody who likes to fly should have that opportunity to do so.
Yes that is my vision as well.
The bit which gets me every time is that people seem to assume that there are only the high end customers like the ones who will shell out a million for a 4 seater new. But that is only a very small fraction of GA. 90% of owners own used planes and these can be had at 20k Euros rather than a million. The important thing in my mind is public perception of this. And that is where the brand new M20 or SR22 are what people read about (let alone a new Cirrus Jet or Citation) and then think that everyone involved in GA has one of those.
My “vision” for GA is that anybody who likes to fly should have that opportunity to do so.
That, and I believe scuba diving, was available in Yugoslavia, under Tito.
Peter wrote:
That, and I believe scuba diving, was available in Yugoslavia, under Tito.
Also in the German Democratic Republic. If you were loyal beyond any doubt you could fly as much as you wanted. They had the GST (Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik – Society for sports and technic) who organised that.
But even in our non-totalitarian European countries (most of them at least) flying was always possible for anyone. Gliding costs almost nothing, motorgliding and microlighting not much more than driving a car. With an average or slightly below average income you can not get everything at once, that’s clear. But if you make a sacrifice at one end (e.g. don’t go on holidays three times per year as many Germans do but only once) flying is really achievable for everybody.
what_next wrote:
But if you make a sacrifice at one end (e.g. don’t go on holidays three times per year as many Germans do but only once) flying is really achievable for everybody.
That maybe a little optomistic.
Fuji_Abound wrote:
That maybe a little optomistic.
A gliding club next to where I live offers flat-rate instruction from pedestrian to first solo for 300 Euros. There are very few people who want to fly and can’t afford that kind of expense.
Gliding, yes…
The Rant and Rave members only section on other aviation forums eventually die a death.
I do prefer a politics free zone, with political heat being restricted to whether there is a downwind stall/spin effect or not!
RobertL18C wrote:
I do prefer a politics free zone…
Like it or not, but there is no life without politics and there is no flying without politics. I would prefer otherwise as well.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Yes, in the US, they work more and they have much less free time. But that also has to do with the fact that people there are much more ambitious in their jobs than the average workerbee here. And you don’t get up the ladder unless you do more than the guy next desk, constantly and always.
That’s a myth. I have been working for American engineering companies for a couple of years, based in Houston and Oklahoma city. I have seen no such effect that isn’t also present in Norway. We have longer holidays, yet we manage to somehow do more work than the average American engineer. IMO the reason is the “by the book” approach in the US, for larger companies at least, while we are in general more result oriented and focused on the task, rather than the process.
It’s far from myth, Americans work hard when motivated, but it is why small business is the underpinning of the US economy, and why people like me (who has worked in the same organization as it grew from 15 to 1500 people) would like it to stay at that way.
