Anyone else notice this about the Games lately?

[SteveB]

The economy in a capitalistic society is a delicate balance between what people demand, and what the government takes. There is also a balance as to where the household priorities sit. A good deal of today's economic woes come from the latest gadget/instant gratification state of our personnas. The petro-chemical issue in the United States is due mostly to the personal choice factor.
In the United States, we have gone from a single income provider household as the norm to the "need" for a two income provider household as the norm. This could turn into a lengthy economics dissertation. I will shortcut it. U.S. "families" rarely are together for meals, watching the telly, or participating in games, concerts or anything much else. U.S. families are spread out in rather large houses, with little common communication. Instead of onetelevision/stereo in the living room shared by all of the family members, each member "needs" to have their own telly, stereo, Xbox, Wii, computer, cable box, internet feed, mobile phone, etc. in their now enlarged bedroom. Now that the expense of all of these trappings are growing faster than the "family" income, changes must be made. Travel to further destinations is usually the first pared from the list, rather then the six or seven extra cable boxes... A larger portion of the younger population lives in the virtual world, and will watch YouTube videos of Celtic festival, or Highland Game events, long before walking three blocks to the actual event. Many of us in the "boomer" generation are barely holding onto employment, and most jobs today do not allow as much time away from work as in the previous decade.
I see this as the registrar for the Mayflower Society's General Congress in September, the reservations are lower thus far than in my 1999 term, and people are waiting til much later to make the decision to attend. Those that could make the decision early were all retired people, on a planned schedule.
I also have the issue of dealing with event schedules. More of us today do not have Saturday off from work in the new 24/7 work environment.
These are my observations, from up here in the Northeast corner.
I can only attend the Sunday at the New Hampshire Highland Games as I have to work on Friday and Saturday. This same falls true of the Irish Festival the week before in Canton, Massachusetts, only a few miles from my home in Boston.
Off the
Slainte