Here's a chart of how a middle class American family currently spend their money.

Please note 74k in income is pre tax, and 57k in expenses is post tax.

So, the average American family is actually spending every dollar they earn.

I don't know where technology fits in to this current budget, but you can see it's pretty much pegged due to housing and healthcare.

$1,000 for one phone is out of the budget for all middle class Americans, period, unless they begin to cut back on cars or food.

Which, you can assume that some might, but on the aggregate, they won't.

I could go out and buy literally 100 motorcycles tomorrow, but I wouldn't even buy one, and I damn sure wouldn't buy one that was 5x more expensive than a similar motorcycle that isn't "luxury".

Thank you for writing :)

High end as in iphone 5c, iphone 6, or iphone 7?

My iphone 5c, cracked screen, was like $40 off of ebay or something. When it came out, the original price was like 200-400 depending on contracts and gb capacity.

I think you will see the same thing happening with iphone 6s too.

But if you told me that you see a large number of fast food employees and janitorial employees and etc riding the bus to work, with iphone 7s in their hand in the first year of launching, I'd definitely be surprised and interested.

I too rode the bus for 3 years and never really noticed that trend among those types of workers who are struggling the most. I just saw a ton of galaxy s3 phones, which are awesome phones from 2012 or whatever.

I don't doubt your experiences however! It is a really interesting thought to have. If they are affording it, I can only assume they aren't purchasing something else, like a car or high end laptop or house.