There are people in this world who are very insensitive to costs. For example the head of Enron built his dog a $50,000 dog house (back in the day and before he went to jail).
LOL
A good friend of mine worked for Enron Canada. And he was an accountant. Apparently his admin assistant was one of the Enron playboy girls (by chance, he swears he didn't know).
One thing about income, people tend to live up their income levels as a generality.
You make 40k a year, you drive a Toyota Corrolla and dream about that BMW thinking, if i only made 90k a year. You make 90k a year you have the BMW but dream about the Lamborghini thinking if only i made 400k a year. I suspect many who buy audio are in the same boat. How many millionaires come to buy nothing but Axiom speakers?
The concept of price:quality really gets lost. More must mean better, swankier, prettier, whatever.
Ego and greed drive this world.
How's that for deep on a Wednesday night?