What thing was ruined because it turned into a rich person's hobby?

[NewLion]

attending Premier League football

Oysters

"!‘It’s a wery remarkable circumstance, Sir,’ said Sam, ‘that poverty and oysters always seem to go together.’
‘I don’t understand you, Sam,’ said Mr. Pickwick.
‘What I mean, sir,’ said Sam, ‘is, that the poorer a place is, the greater call there seems to be for oysters. Look here, sir; here’s a oyster-stall to every half-dozen houses. The street’s lined vith ‘em. Blessed if I don’t think that ven a man’s wery poor, he rushes out of his lodgings, and eats oysters in reg’lar desperation.’

Dickens’s character told the truth. In Victorian England, a dozen oysters cost 4 pence, half the price of a loaf of bread."

https://was.media/en/2023-02-12-how-the-food-of-the-poor-became-a-delicacy/

I fondly remember going to see Evanescence at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2017, and it was £41.50 for a ticket (still have the confirmation email.) Now it's nearly double to see them at the O2 arena. 😭 I looked at the price and couldn't justify it, plus needing someone to look after DS, train, hotel, etc.

I thought the whole point of insurance was to spread the risk and the cost. If the insurance itself becomes unaffordable, then is it worth it?

My DC want guinea-pigs and they tend to be relatively cheap to keep, but I'm still hesitating over the massive vets' fees.

Second hand kids bikes

Airbnb

I'm going to answer this. Our old boy was insured from the day we got him at 9/10 weeks. He lived until nearly 15. The premums start small and get higher. I think they were 80/90pcm in the final years and we had to pay 20% of a claim. Pet Plan - super cover.

I once worked out that with claims, and he was an accident prone sod: 2 inches of tail amputated, ingested some poison (that was touch and go), ate a lily (stomach pump) and in his latter years, arthritis which was dealt with with pain relief. In the end he wasn't ill, he dropped dead next to the cat flap. However, offsetting the claims against the premiums, the outlay was about £7.50pcm which wasn't bad for peace of mind.

With these two, I've been bunging £50 in an account and when the premiums exceed £100, I'll up it to £150. Caveat - I can afford sensible treatment from capital.

Running a business and employing people

This isn't strictly true and it makes me really sad. Yes, rich people have always had horses and as a sport it's always been very elitist. But it's not that long ago we all had horses who were central to our economy and way of life. Our society was built with them and wars won! I’m not rich by any stretch and neither are all of those in my horsey circles. We absolutely work our knuckles to the bone 365 days a year and sacrifice practically every luxury in life to keep them, often taking on sharers to help meet the costs.

But really only because we learnt what we did by helping out at riding schools as kids for free rides and training. Those days are nearly well and truly lost and no way could I afford to learn from scratch now. It truly has become only rich person's hobby and because of that, anything you need to buy for horse riding is priced through the roof! Need a long coat for winter? You can buy a cheap one for less than £50. Need one with a split at the back so you can sit on a horse? Pay double! Need winter boots for walking? Can pick up a basic but decent'ish pair for £30! Need a pair that has a seperate heel that will stop your foot slipping through a stirrup? (That all shoes and boots used to have as standard!). Probably treble that at least! Selling anything remotely useful in an equestrian setting = license to print money 😅

Padel.

Festivals, concerts, theatres. Backpacking around Europe or the world.

Buying any of the houses that were built as cheap housing for the mining plebs, or for the councils, let alone just the next strata up. Having gardens that were built to enable ‘dig for victory’ and, in the railway and mining houses, as a little bit of self subsistence replacing the thefts of Enclosure. Working class people used to keep pigs!

Horses were always a marker of the rich. I’d say they’re cheaper in the last 20 years than they’ve ever been.

Try Aldi, their smoked is good and about 90p.

This

You can get the opposite too though.. goldfish as pets and lemons were originally luxuries too : also sugar

Backpacking can be cheaper if you self cater and camp out.

Train travel to anything
drinking
Eatkng out-even a McD’s is getting spendy now

That's insanely cheap. I Googled average wage in 76, the average weekly mens wage was £70-72.

Now its £742 according to Google!

How on earth did the band make any money at those prices?
By the time you take into account the venues over heads, touring costs, and the number of people in the band!

My question too!

They didn't. As I said upthread, concerts were often run at a loss. They were used as advertising to boost record sales.

When were these for the working class?
Music lessons, theatre, private school...
The only one that could have been considered working class is having pets
Even rugby has always been a middle class sport whilst the lower classes went to football

Certain cuts of meat-lamb shanks, beef cheeks. Fucking wanky tv cooks and restaurants have now made them luxury foods. My fil used to cook.them for the dog!

Going to the pub
Going out for a semi decent meal
Friday fish and chips
Grocery shopping (over £1 for broccoli is a total puss take - it was 45P for years up until Covid)
Putting petrol in your car
Breathing Oxygen

Exercise classes. Tap dancing, yoga and the like. Used to be in the church hall, very reasonable. Now it’s all block booking on apps at a ‘studio’ works out £10 a go with 20 in the class!

A lot of excersize classes in church halls and the like were a side hussle, supplementing someone's main income.
Probably under the radar of the tax man.

Now doing classes is a full-time job. And completely above board.

Well bands need to make money somewhere.
They can't exist on thin air.

The concerts were loss leaders, they ran at a loss to boost record sales which were the money makers

I have a ticket for the Pet Shop Boys row 2 at Wembley Arena back in 1989. I think it was £22.50 but interestingly the merch is more expensive, tshirt is something like £25!