Low Forum Activity?
I'm noticing since coming back to the forum recently that overall activity level on all of RV.net is very low. Even on Tow Vehicles, Around The Campfire and Fifth Wheels, all that used to be very bus...
Forum Discussion
Not sure if forum traffic is down or not but I see, what appears to be a real ageing of many of the RVers I see in campgrounds. Much of this is due to economics in my opinion.
The first truck camper my wife and I purchased was in 1974, a year after we got married and we paid about $5,000 for the new TC. It was a nice large, very heavy one, with all the features we needed. That cost was about 1/10 th of our salaries, combined at that time. Now for a young couple to buy a new TC, most would be looking in the mid $30,000 range + or -. That would require a family income of over $300,000 a year to stay with the same 1/10 th figure. Not many young (or old) couples make that income. While the costs of most consumer items have gone up greatly in the last 30 or 40 years, salaries of the working middle class have not increased a great deal in that same time. Now with the uncertainty of the economy, more and more young people are choosing to rent rather than buy a home. Many, I would suspect, are also not willing or not able to spend the money to buy an RV, for a two week vacation yearly, that is assuming they have jobs.
As the age of forum members increases, we get more and more of the "know it all" geezer group, that often confuse their "opinions" with the truth or facts. Just mention you are having some sort of problem with the same brand and model of TC they have and watch them start bouncing off the wall defending the brand/model, when the OP was just looking for ideas to solve their problem. (a geezer is anyone older than I am, and that is currently 71, the oldest I have ever been)
I suspect that their are a number of North American industries that are going to have problems, in that wages are not keeping up with the costs of recreational items, RVs, boats, airplanes, etc. In 1970, I purchased a Piper Super Cub that had 600 hours on it from new and it was 3 years old, for $6,000. I was making about $20,000 year at the time. I keep up with as many of my old planes as possible and go see them when I am in the area, where they now reside. Ran across the old Cub, I had owned, in Anchorage, a couple of years back with a for sale sign on it, for $50,000. In talking with the owner, found it needed a new cover and engine to pass annual inspection, another $40,000. So for $90,000 a person could have a nice Cub again. I had originally paid 30% of my yearly salary to buy it, now for someone to pay the same 30%, they would need a salary of approx. $300,000 a year, a figure not many people, other than forum moderators and administrators, make a year. LOL
For what the asking prices are for new and used RVs are these days, it is frightening when you consider what the average working person is being paid, if they have a job. It may in the future, put RVing and RV interest type forums, in the same situation that the small aircraft industry has found themselves experiencing, and that is a major decline in participants of RVing.
The first truck camper my wife and I purchased was in 1974, a year after we got married and we paid about $5,000 for the new TC. It was a nice large, very heavy one, with all the features we needed. That cost was about 1/10 th of our salaries, combined at that time. Now for a young couple to buy a new TC, most would be looking in the mid $30,000 range + or -. That would require a family income of over $300,000 a year to stay with the same 1/10 th figure. Not many young (or old) couples make that income. While the costs of most consumer items have gone up greatly in the last 30 or 40 years, salaries of the working middle class have not increased a great deal in that same time. Now with the uncertainty of the economy, more and more young people are choosing to rent rather than buy a home. Many, I would suspect, are also not willing or not able to spend the money to buy an RV, for a two week vacation yearly, that is assuming they have jobs.
As the age of forum members increases, we get more and more of the "know it all" geezer group, that often confuse their "opinions" with the truth or facts. Just mention you are having some sort of problem with the same brand and model of TC they have and watch them start bouncing off the wall defending the brand/model, when the OP was just looking for ideas to solve their problem. (a geezer is anyone older than I am, and that is currently 71, the oldest I have ever been)
I suspect that their are a number of North American industries that are going to have problems, in that wages are not keeping up with the costs of recreational items, RVs, boats, airplanes, etc. In 1970, I purchased a Piper Super Cub that had 600 hours on it from new and it was 3 years old, for $6,000. I was making about $20,000 year at the time. I keep up with as many of my old planes as possible and go see them when I am in the area, where they now reside. Ran across the old Cub, I had owned, in Anchorage, a couple of years back with a for sale sign on it, for $50,000. In talking with the owner, found it needed a new cover and engine to pass annual inspection, another $40,000. So for $90,000 a person could have a nice Cub again. I had originally paid 30% of my yearly salary to buy it, now for someone to pay the same 30%, they would need a salary of approx. $300,000 a year, a figure not many people, other than forum moderators and administrators, make a year. LOL
For what the asking prices are for new and used RVs are these days, it is frightening when you consider what the average working person is being paid, if they have a job. It may in the future, put RVing and RV interest type forums, in the same situation that the small aircraft industry has found themselves experiencing, and that is a major decline in participants of RVing.
