Has the cost of HiFi gotten a bit too much?

Taxing the hell out of the top !% is not going to solve the US’s financial problems. The net worth of the top 1% according to the Federal Reserve is 42.5 trillion dollars as of June of last year. If the US confiscated the entire net worth of the top 1%, it would pay off our current national debt of 30 trillion dollars and cover the federal government’s spending for another year or two.. The additional amount of money the government would get by taxing or confiscating those further down the net worth list (top 2%, top 10%) would shrink rapidly.

Whenever this take from the rich and give to the poor approach has been tried, it has resulted in economic disaster for everyone except those high up in the government. Governments are just not good at running economies.

Although It is a shame that so much wealth is concentrated among so few, the solution is not having the government take their money. It is for our society to become less materialistic, and that includes us. The people on this forum are probably among the top 1% in net worth if we look at the population of the entire world.

So if we want to spread the money around more equitably, the solution is for everyone to buy less and give more.

US national debt clock: https://www.usdebtclock.org/

The FED is a giant ponzi scheme.

Actually the US debt to GPD ratio is not as bad as among the world leading economy. 

https://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html 

@teo_audio the ride you got to take,and the ability to make investments and so on, was supported, nay enabled almost entirely- by the taking of the blood and life of others.

Get a life.  I am also Canadian and resent the implication that my own success is not entirely due to 40 years of hard work.  No one handed me anything my friend.  I suggest you need to find a forum that specializes in self flagellation.

Only if you let them. Any business will keep jacking up their price until people will stop buying. You can spend as much as you would like or you can do your research and get a great sounding system for a reasonable price. This hobby is like others where people will spend double the price for a 5% increase in sound. If that is what they figure is a good return on investment I will never be the one to question it. You can spend $2000 on a car or $200,000. They both get you from point a to b just in different ways in your head and looks!