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ORIGINAL: triadairbiscuit

Minus the fluff, the real point (which I'm not missing by the way) that many, but certainly not all, scratch builders try to make against ARF builders is that they are somehow better because they build. How would you feel if you were Christian and I said I felt sorry for you because, in your ignorence, you did not embrace Buddhism(just an example to illustrate a point), and thus miss out on all sorts of enlightenment? You would likely tell me to take a hike. Perhaps I enjoy this hobby just as much as scratch builders, but in different ways. Perhaps I wouldn't enjoy building even if I had the time. The point that becomes clear to me is that many scratch builders seem unable to see, or accept any point of view but their own in terms of this hobby. You seem to be able to see both sides of the coin, which is great. The OP takes great pains to not directly insult ARF builders, but does so discreetly. To paraphrase the way I read it; ARF's are a sign of the end times for our nation, and their lazy and unskilled propenents are to blame. You may not intentionally do so, but there is an underlying tone of superiority to your post as well. Thats just how I interpret it, and I'm certainly not trying to pick a fight. Actually your second post confirms to me that you're really just hoping others can find the same fulfillment you do in building, which is a noble intention. Just be careful how you classify those who don't feel the need for that kind of fulfillment. Perhaps I'm a bit sensitive because this is not the first thread I've seen that takes a swipe at ARF builders. Why are ARF's such a threat? In fact, I'm just trying to point out that we all participate in this hobby on different monetary, time, and interest levels. ARF builders are people to.

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ORIGINAL: ctdahle

Too many people WANT to believe that my original post was intended as a personal attack on ARF flyers.

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As a nation we are losing our technical abilities, despite the technical excellence displayed by a small number of R/C flyers, and Kit or ARF builders. The ARF, the TV dinner, the IKEA bookcase are all SYMPTOMS of the loss of our technical abilities.

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We cannot economically produce things of tangible value any more so we produce credit default swaps, sub-prime mortgages, and collateralized debt obligations instead. Each of these financial instruments are ways of saying ''we have nothing of tangible value to trade, so instead, we will give you a promise that our children will produce something of value in the future''. Coincidentally, by making it uneconomical for our children to participate in the finer technical points of building model airplanes, cooking real food, reading instead of watching television, playing videos instead of programming computers, wailing on Guitar Hero instead of learning a real musical instrument, we are depriving them of the very abilities that they will need to pay off the debts we have promised they will pay.

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Our inability to create tangible things of lasting value is our national tragedy and it is why we are the worlds larget net debtor nation, a debt which we owe largely to the worlds two most rapidly expanding creditors, India and China, each of which, cooincidentally are very good at building the things that we used to build.

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We find it anathema that a union firefighter, sanitation worker, electrician, plumber or cop is unsatisfied with his salary of under $50,000. Yet we are happy to pay Keith Olbermann $7.5 million, Bill O'Reilly $10 million and Rush Limbaugh $33 million. We call Rush's work valuable and worthy. We say the carpenter is overpaid and we outsource his work to India.

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ORIGINAL: planebuilder66

I don't attack ARF builders, I just state why I like to build and if it were a simple task of glue this to that, it would be easy and it is, but the last kit I built required quite a bit of extra work to make it fit and finish well, much more than just gluing parts together, infact I recut a bunch of parts due to poor quality of parts. So I guess to each thier own, if you have time for building then great, if not, that's fine, as long as the hobby still exists and people enjoy it. I don't believe that CEO's deserve the money they get, nor do I agree with rush's pay either, but some fool was talked into paying that much for his over the top pay. They say that health care profit is 1%, and it doesn't sound like much but on a large scale, that is billions,......yup 1 % is billions in profit, some say that it should be lowered to less than .5%. There should be a cap on CEO pay I believe, but keep it reasonable. Funny how the Big Three went to get a bail out and they got chastized for flying in on private jets?! and now the current administration just O.K.ed the purchase of three- $65 million dollar lear jets, funny huh? You make the decision of what seems fair and right, obviously if you don't someone else will for you. Outsourcing jobs is a $ decision, companys can make more money by building overseas, and we tolerate it to an extent, because we are a comsumer nation. The only area we excell in at technology and development is the medical field, we find and do more for the medical field than the entire world combined, the last 10 years of major research awards has been handed to the good old USA.

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I see the point in this post. Maybe it is unintentional but I, too, am tired of the kit builder swagger displayed in this thread...and maybe that is what is helping to fuel the "energy".

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ORIGINAL: planebuilder66
Once it became mainsteam, it enabled people to become isolated and unattached. Somehow it seems great that my parents use to kick us out of the house to go play in the yard and not watch tv, I have 2 large TV's now, but all day, they've been off, I'd rather clean the basement than watch it.