The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer, while those in the middle are slowly being sucked into that vortex called poverty. In order to verify this, all you have to do is search "Poverty", or homelessness.
Recently there was a lively conversation about 20K tone arms. Can you imagine the wealth surrounding someone who would spend 20K for a tone arm? When I was in real estate I came into contact with wealthy people, and none of them would spend 20K for a tone arm; that's because they were all quite frugal. While I don't know if any of them were audiophiles, because the conversation never wandered off of business, I know that none of them were frivolous. My point is that 20K for a tone arm is not something they would do, unless recently they had come into so much money they could afford to be frivolous.
Now the "Upper middle class" is feeling pinched; that's because no longer can they buy very expensive gear without giving it much consideration. This group of audiophiles has been so focused on "Audiophilia" that they have not been to concerned with realities that are just beginning to affect them. Let me clue you in on some of them.
It takes "generations" to construct a "ghetto"; a generation is 70 years. 70 years ago St. Louis was a great city, and so was Detroit. In the last 20 years those cities have declined like nobody would believe; the only things that have increased are the sizes of the ghettos, and this goes for every major city in the United States of America.
In 66 I was in Detroit, and it seemed that everyone drove a new car, and lived in a swell home with a "rathskeller", and they dressed well; that also went for Pontiac and Flint, Michegan. What does all that have to do with you? I can't answer that question, you will have to answer it for yourself.
Since 2006 the wealth of this entire country has shifted "big time" from the middle class to the very rich, and the pace of that shift is only increasing.
When you put frogs in a kettle of water, and raise the temperature slowly, they will be boiled before they know it's too hot. The prices of all our necessities are constantly increasing, and it's not due to natural circumstances; the rich who rule all the politicians, Democrat and Republican, are making sure the prices of all necessities are increasing.
Enjoy the music while you still can.
