"Me speaking as someone who had a couple of 40K vehicles in their driveway (and couldn't afford them) sometimes people's possessions take all their resources and then they feel like they have to be cheap in the service areas."
And, sometimes that's not the case. It's not typical, but I spent the last two days in million dollar homes. Well, one is probably more like $800K. Neither do services on the cheap. Neither made they're fortunes clipping coupons. I'm sure they've heard something about a recession but they aren't feeling it. That seems to be true for many of the folks I've been working for. Not everyone feels the recession the same way and there's no point assuming they all do.
It's no accident we live where we do. The median income in the county we live in is nearly $102K. Last time I checked job listings online there were hundreds. Nothing I was qualified for, but there doesn't seem to be a big shortage of good jobs in the Washington/Baltimore Corridor. Naturally, it's easier to be optimistic living here.
Regardless, there's a good arguement that you look for what you think you should expect and, generally, you find what you look for. I can find a big, fat zeros all day long when I'm looking for them. It's near impossible to find the nuggets when I've already convinced myself they ain't there for the finding.
When I see two or three $40K+ cars in the driveway, whether I assume they're cheap and/or broke or whether I assume it's a sign of discretionary income, either way, I'll probably be right.
