Quality music gear is more affordable now than it has ever been.
You mention your last bass purchase was around 2006: the cost of gasoline has doubled since then.
A full Bergantino rig costs around $3k: that’s around 1/5th the cost of a “cheap” new car, hardly a house
Yup. Lots of hogwash "alternative facts" in the OP.
I have
lots and lots of music (and photography) stuff. Plenty of it "expensive." None of the music stuff is super high end, and all the super high end camera stuff is outdated high end stuff that I got free or paid peanuts for. E.g. a '70s S.I.N.A.R. (an EXTREMELY expensive camera when new) that my boss gave me for consistently doing a good job at work for 10 years. E.g. a $20,000 Chromega 10x10 enlarger rig that I bought used for $750 at the height of people dumping their old film equipment, etc.
I don't make all that much money. I have only once cracked $40,000 in a year. I grew up with a disabled single father, barely graduated high school, and I chose to get a good financial start with an 8 year career in the military nuclear power field (advanced rank, good practical technical education, big cash bonuses, and NO EXPENSES). When I left that, I took my stowed money and invested it in setting up a life for myself that has very low overhead. I purchased a mobile home free and clear, located in a rent controlled trailer park, and I paid for my vocational education in the field of photography, using the G.I. Bill. I own my home free and clear, and my monthly rent is $270. I didn't have kids, and I didn't get married till I was almost 40.
I choose to "store" my free personal money in the equipment of my hobbies and semi-professions, rather than spending it on overhead and junk, and/or loaning it to corporations or banks. I don't spend on a bunch of stuff that most people do spend on. Haven't owned a TV since 2005. Have never had cable. I have never bought a computer; I used hand-me-downs all my life, and now my laptop provided by work (which is 8 years old). I keep my cel phones about five years on average, and only get a new one when the phone company gives it to me for free. I got my Razor phone for free from my cel company, and used it for eight years. Use the vacuum cleaner that has been in my family since 1969. Wear my clothes for decades. Never used a dishwasher or central air. Cook at home and eat leftovers. Don't spend much on gasoline. And so on and so forth.
I also inherited quite a lot of instruments at one point. My pops was kind of the same way. Never made much money...but kept his basic expenses low, and spent on his hobbies so he could enjoy his life, instead of loaning his dough to others so he could [hopefully] have lots of it when he was a geezer. Seemed like a good choice, IMO, since he died at 51.
Point being, you don't have to be "rich" to have a nice collection of musical gear. You can have it with have a combination of good fortune (I was born a white male in America into a lower middle class family during time of general world peace – could be a heck of a lot worse), timely decision making, and well thought out career and financial choices.
