The Truth About Why US Ski Resorts Have Become So Expensive (And Where to Go Instead!)

The high cost of skiing and ski area housing is a symptom, not a root cause. The root problem is twofold:

 

1. Snow skiing—like every other industry—has been taken over by monopolies. Monopolies invariably raise prices, lower services, and crush workers. Banking, agribusiness, airlines, high tech, telecommunications: name any area that does not have this problem. This trend, which started under Ronald Reagan, is defended by the neocons and globalists. They say it reflects free markets, but what we have now is the opposite of free markets.
2. Federal forest policy. This is another monopoly, which is joined at the hip to corporate and special interest monopolies. When I travel to our Idaho ranch from Texas, I fly for hours over snow-covered, public land mountains which are off limits to ski resorts and housing. Try to get permission to build a new resort at Wolf Creek Pass, or just a hotel or lift at Grand Targhee: permitting can take 30-years with no guarantee of approval.

 

So-called “conservationists” have caused this. And yet, they are outraged by the low wages and high costs they have created—and maintain.

 

The solutions are found in competition and free markets. Break up the agency and conglomerate monopolies, and re-open our public lands to the public—including skiers.

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