Future of SCUBA Industry?

[Doc]

Some real industry research: Cline Group Diving Industry Survey 2010

 

[SeaHound]

Thanks so much RM. Very helpful.

 

[theduckguru]

What we are mistakenly calling a "recession" is actually an ongoing readjustment to the "new normal" for the West. The era of a large, affluent middle class - an anomaly by historical standards - is over, and with it, the era of expensive leisure activities by average families. Virtually all workers - including engineers, accountants and lawyers -are now competing with millions of Indians and Chinese for jobs, and highly paid labor in the West is increasingly a thing of the past.

Western governments, in an effort to soften the blow, are bankrupting themselves and will be unable to to prevent the inevitable social unrest. Vicious inflation is already guaranteed as governments must escape their mounting debts by printing more money. Class envy will erupt in open hostility. Demagogues will exploit the rage of the suffering middle classes and pin the blame on the wealthy, on immigrants, and on minorities.

While inflation and lower wages reduce paychecks, rising standards of living abroad will increase demand and prices for oil, wheat, and other commodities, making them more expensive on world markets. Lifestyles and expectations in the West will be adjusted downwards. American mothers will once again learn to cook, and Alaskan cruises will be replaced by backyard barbeques. There will be a lot fewer BMW's in high school parking lots.

Scuba and other expensive sports will take a disproportionate hit, because travel, cruise ships, and recreation are the first things to go when families are under financial stress. Hotel clerks and Dive masters worldwide will have to begin learning Mandarin.

On a global scale, the oceans will continue to be depleted until it is no longer profitable for factory ships to leave port. Rising waters will drown low-lying areas like Florida and Bangladesh. Global warming will displace billions of people, as Tibetan Plateau glaciers feeding the Indus, Ganges, and Yangtze rivers melt away. Greenland will once again be green, and Canadians will begin marketing bananas and coffee.

All the changes taking place today point to a much smaller human footprint in the future. Humans will have to learn to live more frugally and sustainably, taking no more than the earth can provide. Beef and pork will be replaced by lentils, rice and wheat. Lobster and Tuna will be replaced by Krill.

One definition of a depression is a prolonged recession. We'll have to see if history records this down turn as the economic fall of the west, a recession or a depression.

If oil increases to $250 a barrel and wages are stagnant, the cost to transport a ton of steel from China will exceed the labor cost to produce it in the US.