Kevin,
Hate to burst the bubble, but
>>People like John, Rod Paddock, myself, and a few other forum members have seen significant market impact and trends, based on which products are declining and which are receiving more focus.
Puh-leez. I'd say close to 100% of UT frequenters are perfectly aware of the trends you describe. Why do you and yours keep claiming special enlightenment like that?
Having worked in a missionary station in Zimbabwe once upon a time, I fully realize how personally rewarding it can be to educate and empower the disadvantaged. But to relegate most of your peers to ignorant incompetence to justify feelings of superiority seems more attuned to bolstering the claimant's own self esteem, and more than a little insulting to the target group. In your case this is not necessary- you have enough true expertise that there is no need to cast all the rest of us as ignoramuses in order to share your valuable insights.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1