consumption based recreation

As of late, there seems to be a bit of social thinking done along the lines of consumption-based recreation. The theory goes a little something like this: in faster-paced and more consumption oriented societies (such as ours) recreation becomes an extension of ones lifestyle. In this way, one would likely feel the need to "super size and Too Faster Too Furiouser" their free time. This is why your typical whoever can't have a good time unless they're going 70 mph on a jet boat circling their island cottage with their expensive sunglasses and their novelty light up jester hat, whilst every waking moment of their weekend needs to be spent not enjoying the smells of this or that but instead cramming as much activity as impossible.

This is where it gets interesting. As the middle class goes the way of the dodo and dual downdraft side carbs, the masses will no longer, overall, be able to afford the in your face, plastic trinket vacations and recreations of yore. This means an adjustment of sorts will be required for the reality (you can only afford to go sit on a beach and think about rocks) to catch up with the fantasy (jet truck melt down). The europeans, as you may or may not know, value free time and general chillaxin a little more than your typical yankee doodle and already, (again, overall) spend more time sitting on beaches than trying to amateur-pilot this or that. This could be because their economy down turned years ago, their values were never quite as consumption oriented, or even because their beaches are mostly topless/nude and their people mostly not obese slobs (sorry- i could be getting a bit preachy here).

But seriously folks... Nude wheel barrel races? Why would you do that? And who would take a picture? And why would someone publish that on the internet? And link to it?

(sometimes there are no answers)