Reminds me of this story where Zuckerberg's laptop is on a photo showing he uses tape on his iSight camera and audio jack. [1]
You can also read in the same article that he had 5 bodyguards whilst jogging in Berlin.
My point is: "Some precautions are expensive, some are cheap." Or, put more extensive: "Some precautions are out of reach for the masses, some are within reach." Although more factors than price define whether something is within reach for the masses, such as ease of use.
Your example is obviously (very) expensive, same with 5 bodyguards. That's reasonably expensive. Using tape on your laptop isn't though. That is cheap. Using cryptography or TorBrowser, for example, is also cheap.
[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653442/Paranoid-lit...
