"there are more flight instructors in America than there are student pilots."

Meaningless stat. It's been like that since 2002. First of all, I'd bet most CFI's do little to no instructing, like myself and Skyhigh. Yet, they count as "CFI certificates" in the stats. Secondly, student pilots don't stay as student pilots. They become PPL's, CPL's, and IFR rated pilots. And lastly, CFI's are not restricted to only instructing "student pilots", so the stat hardly proves there isn't work for CFI's. In fact, before the recent spike in gas prices, it seems there was quite a shortage of CFI's.

"GA is dying on the vine."

Don't agree. Maybe with oil at $147, but you can find avgas now in SoCal now below $4/gal. With the economy tanking for the next year or so, I see all aspects of aviation taking hits. But saying it's "dying on the vine" is an overly pessimistic skyhighism.