Scuba is like golf, it can be for the rich and for the not so rich. However, rich golf and poor golf are two different things --- playing at Doral country club for 200 bucks a round using Callaway Clubs isn't the same as playing at a public course for 20 a round using hand-me-down clubs. But a person can have fun and satisfaction doing both...rich isn't necessarily better.
It also depends on how dedicated one is to the sport. The wealthy can afford to have many hobbies. A poorer person can dive, but may not be able to do much else. Thus, a poor diver tends to be an avid diver. I suspect wealthy divers, like wealthy pilots, have more accidents. The rich can afford to dabble in things like scuba and flying, sports where dabbling may not be enough to be safe.
I dive at local quarries where the cost is 5 dollars per day entrance fee and 5 dollars for each air fill. The people there are of modest means and dive every weekend, even ice diving there on the winter weekends. Being a former surgeon, I also have friends who wouldn't be caught dead in a quarry, preferring to hop on a plane to the Caymans when they have the urge to get wet. To me, I like diving, I don't care where it is or who it is with, just as I love to golf, no matter whether it's on a club course or a pitch and putt.
I've been lucky in life and can afford to travel to places like Aruba or the Keys four or five times a year, but I still like the local diving.
Really cool
. But is it why you are a former surgeon?:11: 
