Australia

You don’t see any issue in our collective quality of life getting gradually worse?

I mean, sure - skiing/snowboarding/sledding isn’t exactly everyone’s idea of a good time (especially not mine), but that doesn’t mean that we all should just be OK with our family, friends and colleagues that do missing out because the ever increasing cost of living is causing them to now be worse off than the generations before.

Have you not already noticed how there are very few “third spaces” left for our kids to freely just “exist” anymore? Everything has been just about been commoditised and priced out of their budgets.

Lastly, do you really think that the sub-1% of the population that seemingly owns everything is going to be happy once they’ve priced the working class out of all of their “wants”? They’ve already started coming for our “needs” through rent-seeking, shrinkflation, enshittification, and Everything-as-a-Service.

Please try to empathise with society around you, lest you just end up a boiled frog.

I don't think your point is wrong at all. Sports are generally wants and not needs. Putting aside what gets to constitute needs and if meeting those criteria are all there is to a meaningful life, I started skiing in my mid30s. I always thought it was a rich people thing and that ski resorts were mostly just resorts in the snow. I learned at a place that was $50/day for ticket, rentals and group lessons if you bought 4. Still more expensive than a movie but on par with my other outdoor hobbies like hiking, fishing and paddling. When I got into it and started talking about the hobby, I talked to lots of people who skied as kids or even on their school teams but stopped because of the expense. The ski resorts near me are largely private but on public land. The prices have gone up astronomically in the last 15 years from what I understand. I looked into stopping in Colorado to ski on my way to somewhere else and it was several hundred dollars a person at the three places I looked. Now, I too, am priced out except at small, rural mountains. If one wants to ski en piste it is tough to do it affordabley now but it didn't use to be.

Skiing can be a fun, family and affordable sport for all kinds of different people. It isn't anymore due to consolidation of ownership in the industry and PE money chasing short term profit from bleeding current users over growing the sport. Those resorts are mostly on our public lands and the access to those lands being so aggressively metered sucks and makes life worse. Skinning is still an option but less accessible and harder for kids.