I found an interesting story on the web today. From Reuters we learn that: Brunswick Corp., the world's largest maker of recreational boats, said on Friday that the drop in U.S. demand it was seeing for some boats was "unprecedented."
In a conference call with analysts to discuss Brunswick's third-quarter loss, Chief Finance Officer Peter Leemputte said the results "reflected the deep decline in markets for outboard powered boats as well as some share loss."
He said unit retail demand in 2007 for aluminum boats over 16 feet long was down 20 percent compared with 2004. Leemputte said that demand in the Upper Midwest, where Brunswick has a greater presence and where a painful restructuring of the auto industry is cutting deeply into consumer confidence, demand for such boats was down 43 percent "meaning half this market has disappeared."
(Reporting by James B. Kelleher, editing by Phil Berlowitz)
For years the U.S. economy has featured its consumers borrowing huge chunks of money to buy things they really don't need: new cars; SUVs; RVs; huge stainless steel propane-fired outdoor grills; boats; motorcycles; snow mobiles; and just about any other kind of toys the adults (and I use the term loosely) have wanted. They have been doing this spending without any apparent regard to whether or not their incomes really allow them to afford all those toys. Their houses had so increased in value that they could simply borrow money on a home equity line of credit and buy, buy, buy. Well, that source of easy money has dried up. And now the spending on adult toys (no I'm not referring to small battery-powered gadgets) has also dried up.
The whole bizarre idea that an economy can be based on consumer spending instead of productive activity is coming crashing down in flames, as it inevitably had to. OK, enough with the playing; now we have to get back to actually making stuff other people will buy. And while I'm at it: the whole idea that we can afford to fund an army of perfectly healthy senior citizens happily driving their gargantuan RVs, really houses on wheels, the size of a Greyhound bus, from one resort to the next for 20 years or so after retirement, is equally insane. Get over it, people - we can't continue doing that. It is going to have to stop, no matter how "entitled" our senior citizens think they are. They're going to have to relearn the joys of reading a good book, puttering in the garden, and playing checkers. Or maybe they'll need to get back out there and do some work. And don't even think about accusing me of being anti-old. I am old. But I'm not crazy enough to believe that we can do whatever we want, merely because we want to. That way leads to ruin.
