there is a generally enforced teatotaling atmosphere enforced these days or strict moderation when it was never the case in the past.

Conrad, I think you must live on another planet. Who's enforcing a 'teatotaling" atmosphere? I've never seen such a thing - ever.

Still does not excuse high beer prices just to weed out the crowd via economic discriminaiton.

If you seriously think that bars and pubs charge high prices just to 'weed out the crowd' - or that folk musicians hold sessions in expensive pubs just to 'weed out the crowd' - then you're a nincompoop. Pubs charge what they can to make a living - either a small living or a good one, depending on their attitude.

Folk musicians should try to hold their sessions in inexpensive places not the most expensive. Dont think there is anything wrong with that suggestion.

Well, that suggestion just demonstrates more of your stupidity. Folk musicians generally hold their sessions in places that will have them - and many places don't want that kind of music - so the restrictions that come into play are not based on beer prices but simply on what might be available. The cheapest places in town just may not want folk sessions - it's as simple as that.

I have never yet, in all my playing years, heard of anyone being put off going to a pub to listen to or participate in a music session because the beer was either cheap or expensive. Apart from you, that is...

What really arouses my curiosity are your initial arguments in this thread: (a) that folk music is vital to everyone's 'lifeway' (b) that economic circumstances are preventing that vital music from getting to poor people. You haven't produced one shred of evidence to support these points. You've banged on about folk professionals lolling by hotel pools and driving prices up - also preventing this 'vital' music from getting to poor people - but you haven't given us one concrete example of such a traditional folk musician.

And you have consistently refused to give us a single example of this 'vital' music that is being prevented from being heard by poor people - not one example. Is it any wonder that you're not taken seriously.

You can post what the devil you like on Mudcat - it's that sort of forum - but, if you simply repeat a theory or an argument without any evidence to support it, or refuse to quote any references or articles or examples to give real credence to your theory, or simply refuse to answer simple questions put to you, then you look and sound stupid. It's quite clear from your numerous posts in this thread that any musician who strives to be good at what he or she does, or any instrument maker who tries hard to create good instruments - or anyone who doesn't fit your crackpot theories - is dubbed 'elitist'. But to keep calling these people elitist is simply demonstrating your bad attack of sour grapes.

The facts for you to face, Conrad, are that no-one is prevented from accessing folk music through economic circumstance, and that folk music - and we don't know what you mean by that term - is the hobby of a minority. And folk music is no more vital to the 'lifeway' of many people than any other form of music.