ORIGINAL: combatpigg
How can you possibly argue with all the people who silently choose not to join because of the cost? Just because you and I think it is affordable has no bearing on anyone else. People are voting with their wallets, as we speak.
You have said that a couple of times here, CP, and it it makes me wonder if I am alone in hearing you.
When something is offered at a given price, it is can be a steal, priced fairly, or too much depending entirely on the buyer's assessment of its value. The cost of AMA membership is accordingly a terrific deal if one is a member of a club, engages in competition, enjoys the magazine, has less other liability insurance (HO, PUP) than he should and his interests tend to the high risk (extreme speed and weight, e.g.) end of the R/C categories, and AMA actually represents
his views before regulatory agencies instead of just some vague socialistic concept of
us.
Those among us that are sport modelers, indie flyers, have made provisions for adequate insurance based on individual assessment of prudent coverages, and don't feel that the views of a dozen old guys in another part of the country about what is good for
us is really good for them as individuals, may or may not like the magazine but wouldn't it buy bundled with a lot stuff they don't have any use for. Some basically pay AMA what they view as a tax on the price of admission to a site where they can fly, and to them the cost AMA is what the OP says it is.
We modelers run the gamut between those extremes, and I suppose some push the envelope further than the limit cases I described. Still, we are all correct no matter how diverse our views on the matter of value.