Cost of living

I do not understand how everyone is pleading systemic poverty yet all the heroes and villains own spaceships.
Are they cheap as chips?
Not to mention the price of fuel.
And what is with the outrageous plethora of highly dangerous metal in all the environments, they look like ww2 submarines.

And the working interiors like a poorly designed Soviet power station.
I am reminded of the Stainless Steel Rat who went back in time and could not fathom how to drive a car. Too many things to push and control.
His spaceship had a console where you typed in a planet's name and just pushed the go button
And got there.