Totally agree, and many have lived with far less. Look at what most pioneer farmers used that went west and homesteaded some lot of land someplace. They didn't have much but they had enough to get by with. Today, in the modern world, there's not even that much need for much knife in urban or suburban areas.
BUT...this excludes the obsessive knife nut with the disposable income to indulge their obsession and fantasy. It really doesn't matter if it's knife nuts, or gun nuts, or car nuts or motorcycle nuts, as soon as they become the obsessed fan boy they are lost to reality. The car nut thinks if it ain't a Porsche then it's junk. The knife guy thinks if you don't have a knife capable of prying open a tank hatch, then you're SOL. The gun nut thinks if you're not carrying a Glock with three spare magazines and a back up gun, then you're a sitting duck and woefully underarmed.
No, we don't need a fraction of the knives we accumulate because of our knife nut obsessive addiction, hell, most people in cities don't even bother to carry a knife these days. And judging by the sales and production numbers, a vast majority of people who do bother to carry a knife, buy the humble Victorinox classic. Or something for 10.99 made in a big Asian country and sold at Walmart.
The whole of my paternal family is still working watermen on the eastern shore of Maryland's Chesapeake bay. Barry and Dave operate their own boats, crabbing in summer and oystering in winter, spending long hours out on the water cutting bait and setting crab pots. They both use low cost knives because they get used up and discarded overboard or tossed in a trash can. Knives like the Queen Cutlery Big Chief are popular. They use plain Swedish Mora stainless boat knives in plastic sheaths. Thats it. Nothing high dollar. Most dwellers of suburbia won't even need that. A small SAK will do for most people these days. Anything more is just obsessing.
