Here’s an interesting article from Marketing Daily.   Here’s a fact from the article that dismays me:

Nearly 40% of survey respondents who earn less than $35,000 and spend $2,000 or more annually perceive consumer electronics products as too expensive, compared with 25% of those who average yearly salaries between $75,000 and $99,999.

I wonder who the folks that make under $35K a year are.  Are they folks with families or are they students or people who are still living with their parents so they don’t have to pay for the necessities of life?  I guess I’m not surprised to see this, considering that within my own family, the ones that are in poverty generally have better electronic stuff than my-geeky-self.  But they, also, have hungry children and are in a constant state of being on the edge of eviction and days away from having their utilities disconnected.  What’s messed up is that they may be better customers than families with more money, so it’s tempting to advertise to them to get that money they are so easily willing to part with.  Usually, this is associated with some terrible credit purchasing terms.  Half of me feels very guilty about preying upon this segment of poor consumers.  The other half of me says, “you reap what you sow,” and feels no pity when folks with illogical priorities find themselves in trouble.  At the same time, though, you can’t get money from someone who has none, so in the end, this kind of culture of illogical priorities coupled with greed catches up with society, like it has in the US now.