Please do not make assumptions about me. I may have well-off parents, but who says I have never worked or studied hard to get where I am? The next thing you would be telling me is to sell my weekend car and donate that too.
Anyways back to the original topic...I bought a few in a short time to replace my outdated/broken desktops and laptops. I like having variety for various occasions and backups as I usually am pretty hard on my computers so yes laptops I own usually completely die (not just one issue but everything begins to fail) after 3-4 years sometimes sooner... I will always have at least one on running something.
I can sympathize - I like to refresh my laptops on a yearly basis to keep current with technology. I also have a dedicated gaming PC laptop (Clevo) for blowing steam off (I have a very stressful job), a Macbook Air to complement the company laptop (a linux appliance that can't run Windows that I lug to client site), couple more for testing networks and OSes. All purchased with my own hard earned cash.
Getting back to topic - The Macbook Air is like a Katana, or a surgeon's scalpel. The mistake many people make is to compare it to the Macbook Pro's broadsword. It can be a useful precision tool if you have an idea on how to exploit its capabilities.
Or a useless netbook if your highest aspiration in life is to play multiple HD You Tube videos (then post here to complain why does Apple expect people to pay premium for such a slow laptop).
In other words, carefully analyze your workload. Where are you going to use this laptop? Will you have access to wireless, and how often do you use the optical drive with your current laptops? Are ram and storage important? Why do you want this laptop and not another? Maybe even create a checklist to see how the MBA stacks up.
If you purchase, you do have two weeks to decide whether or not you want to keep the laptop, or exchange it for something more "powerful".