No offense meant to those who feel otherwise, but I don't understand why there's always so much carping about the "absurd" or "ridiculous" pricing of uber high end gear. We live in a world where some people have unlimited resources to satisfy their desires for the "best," whatever that may be. Inventive and resourceful people earn their living making products to satisfy these desires and the wealthy temporarily scratch their itch to have another signifier of their status. Economically, it's mutually beneficial relationship to my mind. I imagine most people wish that wealth was more equitably distributed, but at least some of the monies of the well-healed is getting redistributed in the trade for luxury goods. 
Photon46 makes a great point
I think that we all like to joke around now and then and perhaps they are times when you must sit down and have a real good laugh at yourself also - I find that this keeps me sane most of the time. As everyone knows that in our audio hobby, everyone has their own price plateau or perhaps a better term would be their own personal saturation point.
Many individuals consider me to be somewhat of a "nut bar" or "freak" for the amount I paid for my audio gear. On second thought, this may not be a good example because they thought of me this way before I purchased my little piece of audio Nirvana - oh well, I think that you get the point I am trying to make. I find all audio gear interesting on varying scales, from the equipment that I can put on the shelf to the ultra high end gear that I can only fantasize about owning. Hmm.. now where did I put that article on the JBL Everest speakers?
Whether an individual's purchase is based on performance, aesthetics, wants, needs or even vanity; it is what makes us happy at the end of the day. Perhaps deep down, we all have a little vanity inside of us. Another observation that I consider from time to time if we may also harbour a little touch of jealousy. I guess we may all fall into this category as sometimes we overlook what we have and can only see what the next individual has.
Be well...
