Very interesting item:

...Even large amusement parks like Six Flags are having trouble surviving. If those places are having issues...what does that mean for your local carnival?

These are the unintended and unforseen consequences of the passage of time and economic uncertainty. These events and things that have always been part of our lives get caught in the middle and disappear. I had always grown up in a world where I just assumed everyone knew what a "carnival" was and had been to one. A few years from now, I'm not so sure that world will still exist....

http://chud.com/articles/blogs/1773/Death-...e-Carnival.html

Well I know my old Carny boss is still doing really good, he told me last year was the best he's ever had and this year is looking pretty good with even more events lined up. The true test for the year will be this weekend.

There are of course different levels of carny companies. There are the places like Murphy Brothers who has newer stuff and take pretty good care of it, then they sale their used stuff to the second tier people that do county fairs, and then their are the third tier people that buy it after the second tier people have used it. The third tier people are the ones doing church fundraisers and setting up for weekends in nowhere Arkansas. The people on the bottom always have the old stuff that seems out of repair, etc, but that has always been true.

So it sounds like this guy went to one event ran by a low level carny company and he is saying because they don't have new rides it must be an end to all carnies? Doesn't seem like he is making a solid argument.