Guys
let me spend a word about this debate: especially if you have already been several times abroad you might confirm or deny my *impression*.
1) Lately - probably following what Fred said " Here in the US, we have a culture of the very wealthy purchasing exotic machinery just because they can " - also here in Italy - especially after the advent of Euro, I see lots of enriched people behaving the same way. Here status symbol are (mostly) german cars and SUVs, Ferrari and other custom-built cars are still rare, football players aside; still, it happened to me to see with my eyes an eastern man who had clearly no clue about any photographic skill or basic, asking once of a Canon SLR "just because they said it's the best camera on the market". I might be wrong but he was playing with at least 2 months if no more of his poor salary to get something he wouldn't have never used if not in AUTO mode. Here,especially among p/s users, is still valid the MP myth: "more is necessarily better, who cares about all the rest, if you have less you're out of date".
2) I'd say that Leica is still (locally) a quite unknown brand (just because you don't usually see Leica P/S or mobile phones, around, while you see Panasonic, Canon, Sony..). Leica and Zeiss are still confined to the "plus" given to mobile phone lenses but none really understands how much the quality of a lens is important when taking a picture. Conversely - but here's a supposition - I'd bet that abroad, especially in poor areas, microcriminality knows very well the value of a Leica camera (while averagely you have even less people knowing it because it's not like Coke, spread everywhere) so you're more in danger if they notice you, especially with the "tourist looking" (hat, shorts, pale skin, sunglasses, waist pouch and watch at your wrist) or the "reporter looking" (30-50 age range, jacket even when it's not cold, beard not shaven, hair from middle to long, still pale skin, casual dressing - and if you're unlucky also a bag aside somehow). People who need money to survive day by day are used to recognize you as a potential carrier of valuable equipment. Of course, for them, you are really a rich and fat western man who deserves only to be stolen as soon as possible. Stereotype? Yes. A fact that every Leica will food them for months if no years? True as well.
3) Leica is - as many other companies - one of those elitary brands who charge much more because of the brand itself than because of the real value of this object. Also my (american) company asked us once to return 10 simple washers (those you purchase for 1$/kg) because EACH of them costed 45 € !!! They were not done in titanium nor any other exotic material, they were just simple rubber.
All this to say that probably - as often happens - the truth is in the middle.
