The frustrating economics of aviation

C J Campbell wrote:

General aviation should be a viable and useful form of transportation. Too
many people seem to think that it should be limited to a recreational sport
accessible to only a few. Trouble is, this is the same thing that the
airport haters have been saying for years -- that general aviation is
dominated by elitist romantics who don't give a dead rat about anyone else.

Why do so many pilots think that, even though their generations-old
airports are now surrounded by the inevitable accretion of suburbs and
shopping centers, their communities should maintain these airports for
aviation use instead of turning the airport's acreage to more
appropriate uses? Could it be that these pilots are in fact "elitist
romantics who don't give a dead rat about anyone else" and worse, they
are not bright enough to understand that their current airports were
built out in the country in years gone by because that's where airports
belong?


Jack