Each holiday season, thousands of teenagers tear gift wrap off shiny, new guitars. They giddily pluck at the detuned strings, thinking how cool they'll be once they're rock stars—even if almost all will give up before they ever get to jam out to "Sweet Child o' Mine."
For them, it's no big deal to relegate the guitar to the back of the closet forever in favor of the Playstation controller. But it is a big deal for Fender Musical Instruments Corp., the 70-year-old maker of rock 'n' roll's most iconic electric guitars. Every quitter hurts.
[...]The $6 billion U.S. retail market for musical instruments has been stagnant for five years, according to data compiled by research firm IBISWorld, and would-be guitar buyers have more to distract them than ever. So how do you convince someone to put down the iPhone, pick up a Stratocaster, and keep playing?
Seems Fender didn't get the memo: the music of the future is hip-hop and autotuners.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday November 24 2016, @05:36AM
Exactly.
"Cases where an employer can't afford to pay a living wage for the work are few and far between."
Depending on your definition of 'living wage' (assuming you have one, for many it's more of just a sound that stops thinking) that might be true. So what? Regardless of how many or how few they are, the question is simply whether they are better off being allowed to work and improve themselves, or whether you think it's better to mandate unemployment and welfare for them instead.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?