Posted on 01/05/2019 1:37:16 AM PST by vannrox
Interesting......young people are NOT joining these orgs for the most part.
I would be great to see church groups get active again.
At one time or another I have visited Elks, Vets, Legion, fire houses and probably others clubs. My impression of most, if not all, was that they were were dark smoked filled holes for drunks to gather and waste money on ripoff tickets.
3 things that greatly impact private clubs.
Most young people, actually any age, avoid clubs that allow smoking.
DUI laws.
Gambling venues are popping up everywhere. Also, in PA, gambling laws favor State provided games and casinos.
Posted 4 days ago by Kaslin, the reliable informer on all things at Townhall.com.
Never mind just young people; middle-aged people have little use for them as well. We’re taxed to death to give free sh!t to a swelling population of people that won’t do things for themselves, and the last thing I want to do when not working to pay for that is hear about more people who need my time and/or money.
Demographics play a big role here as well; the foreigners we’ve imported to replace lost generations of white babies don’t tend to be makers or givers; they are here to take. The white working class was the backbone of these groups, and it is rapidly disappearing due to attrition. Just as widening swathes of this country have no taxpayers left, they also have no volunteers either (for the same reasons).
We are living the Civic life. Our Civic is 20 years old, runs like a top and with a new paint job, sparkles on the lot.
My town has plenty of old Protestant and Catholic churches that are either without a congregation (they rent out the space to newer non-denominational congregations) or they simply burn up their money until they close.
A neighboring town has an old Dutch church that pre-dates the American Revolution; the congregation died off and it was sold to a Hispanic evangelical group. Years ago a storm broke the cross off the steeple, and they’ve had fundraising signs for it ever since (and it isn’t fixed). These “replacement Americans” aren’t here to contribute; they are here to take. When those Hispanic children line up for “free” school supplies every September or “free” Christmas presents every December, I see old white women handing them out - pictures worth a thousand words. True “charity” is a “white thing”...
It isn’t the “trend” (in majority movement, anyhow).
Some people who infilitrate these organizations want to eventually get control of the (now valuable) properties.
And there are preservationists who want them to remain.
But there was a great falling away from church memberships and church attendence which was a component of such charitable organizations.
It started at the beginning of Obama's terms. Coincidence?
“Most young people, actually any age, avoid clubs that allow smoking.”
I’ve never seen that. The ‘young people’ are there in huge numbers, when they aren’t stepping out to smoke a joint.
Speaking as an Elk, our membership is healthy and growing. We are now non-smoking (except for a designated outside area) and members ages go from 30’s to 90’s.
“We are now non-smoking (except for a designated outside area) “
—
Just curious——did you kick them out if they move outside of the designated outdoor non-smoking area?
.
Up until about ten years ago our little community would have a monthly dance with volunteer live music. Folks would come from a hundred or more miles away to come get together and catch up. People just can’t afford the time to do this anymore. They are all too busy trying to get by.
Is that because they are trying to put food on the table while maintaining a house that is forty years old and keeping two ten year old cars on the road?
Or, are they paying for a McMansion while keeping up the payments on two leased BMWs and making health club membership and country club dues, while trying to pay off last winter’s trip to Bermuda that was put on a maxed out Visa card.
Many Americans are trying to get by because they have no concept of financial planning, an idea of what saving is, the inability to distinguish between wants and needs.
People ought to be paying off debt and providing for childrens education needs before digging their holes deeper, especially in a full employment economy.
Shalom Aleichem
As a practical minimalist I absolutely agree. These are all down home country folk who were forced to get a second job and cut back on expenses when the economy tanked just to get by and keep food on the table let alone fill their gas tanks at the price fuel was at the time and for quite awhile. The O-man really did a number on these folks who lived rural.
But I’m with you, There is a huge difference in perception and rationality about what makes one “comfortable”. No one lives within their means anymore and this has bolstered the living on credit and consumerism issues that now cost us all because of it. “Extravagant” is accepted by society as the new “practical”.
We are now at least two generations removed from reality and the true definition of practicality. We have ignorantly fallen for the consumerism illusion and sales pitch hook line and sinker.
Townhall version posted here
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3716647/posts
Examiner here:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3716580/posts
for those interested in earlier comments.
Third times’ a charm?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3716647/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3716580/posts
Long running issue. This book is almost 20 years old now.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community is a 2000 nonfiction book by Robert D. Putnam. It was developed from his 1995 essay entitled “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital”. Putnam surveys the decline of social capital in the United States since 1950. He has described the reduction in all the forms of in-person social intercourse upon which Americans used to found, educate, and enrich the fabric of their social lives. He argues that this undermines the active civil engagement, which a strong democracy requires from its citizens.
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