Let me also note that there is a difference between buying a few things that are unnecessary and filling your entire life with them. The vast majority of people could do away with easily 85% of their possessions, and not need a single one of them ever again. This is a very real problem. There are very real implications to this kind of lifestyle. But go ahead and buy your shoes and expensive clothes and extra TVs and your tablet and cellphone and cologne and that really nice speaker set, that super cool-looking car, it doesn't matter. It is wrong to make any value judgements of any kind. Saddam Hussein wasn't an asshole because he lived in palaces while people starved, just like American billionaires aren't assholes because they live in palaces while black kids get killed in the ghetto.