"Just think if we had a strong middle class of users who were engaging, reading, curating, handling abuse and actively involved in the site."
I think that would be ideal and that is the place I am hoping to reach myself. It doesn't really matter what the economy is, a strong middle class is usually a good indicator of its health and I think you are right about the same being true here.
Yeah, it is a numbers game, there are so many hours in a day... So many posts, so much curation to do, so little time.