We often hear people lament that boat manufacturers have "priced the
middle class" out of boating. Not neccessarily, at least according to
a piece that's running in the Washington Post. The author cites a New
York economics professor who assigns "upper middle class" status to
families with incomes up to $300k a year and remarks that "rich" in
the US these days is a status that requires a $300k annual income
*and* a net worth in excess of $10mm. While the economics professor
confirms that less than 1% of Americans enjoy a net worth in excess of
$10mm, enough are earning $200-300k family incomes that the category
represents the upper portion of the middle class.

Intersting article. But be forewarned, the article quotes some of the
current candidates for POTUS.....and I'm trying to jump start an
economic discussion, *not* a political one. :-) My favorite line in
the article is the reference to "suburban families burning through
$200k a year yet still worrying about how to pay the orthodontist."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/achen...dle_class.html

With a little bit of budgeting, it would seem reasonable that most
families could justify spending 6-month's income on a used boat or
perhaps a year's income on a new one; providing they have the cash
flow to support it and keep it long enough for the annual depreciation
to drop to a workable average. With that in mind, the "upper middle
class" should be able to afford many of the boats that we see with six
figure pricing attached.

If there are 100 million family wage earning units in the US and 1/2
of one percent of those units earn $300k per year *and* have net
assets over $10mm, that still leaves a group of 500,000 families that,
if interested in boating, could realistically aspire to own a $1mm
boat. I'd be very surprised to learn that the entire boating industry
sells (in the US) over 1000-1500 new boats each year priced above
$1mm. That's definitely beyond a "middle class" boat, and beyond even
an "upper middle class" financial profile, but there are a lot of
folks in the next category or so down, and a lot of nice boats still
available for 6, rather than 7-figure price tags.

So as astonishingly high as new boat prices often seem to be,
according to at least some economists the potential market is there
for the products.