HiFi lacking social recognition?

My girlfriend who has more disposable $$ than I do has dropped 500 on a purse and over 2k on a watch. I consider that insane. She feels the same about my audio purchases. It takes all kinds. We have travel in common and go away as often as possible, but always looking for deals. She also spent almost 20k on hardwood floors for her home, THAT I could not understand.

Oh yeah, it is at least as insane to pay 3000 usd for a 6 foot powercord as buying a Ferrari instead of a Toyota Corolla. Now there is one difference: If one drives his/her Ferrari, each onlooker will be aware of the fact that the person in the car is a rich person with lots of money to burn. The 6 foot powercord, in your flat, behind your equippment will tell nothing about your status for nobody, save a very select group of insiders. So high end is a vanity of fair, but in a niche fair. No wonder, that anybody who would like to be seen king of the life, rather invest in visible and easily indentifable "signs" of social status and financial indicators. Still: our 6 foot powercord is not contributing to global warming, save it feeds a ML33 style monster, contrary to any car equipped with huge and powerful engine.

attend THE show, or others.....the equipment changes, but the same six records get played year after year, and the same faces ....like an episode of the twilight zone....a comicbook convention has more excitement.

money does not equal discernment...hence the existence of Zimmers, McMansions, etc. Personally, I adhere to the George Costanza ideal of the "opposite"; if the new money crowd is not into high-end audio, that's a plus in my book.

Our hobby is like most others. Stamp collectors pay many times face value for little squares of paper that are only worth that kind of money to those who belong to that fraternity. Likewise, our cables, cartridges and clocks are worth what we are willing to pay and are of no interest to the general population. If there were 20 million of us, we'd be in Forbes. Since there are probably more like 2,000 of us, we are more likely to show up in a sideshow.