The avalanche begins with a pair of little red shoes… beware!
We are the ONLY animals on this planet that has any concept of finances - and what’s worse, some of us even harm others in its pursuit.
What is materialism?
Materialism means the pursuit of stuff to improve our status, self-esteem (emotional value) or perceived value both personal and culturally. It has no limits other then how much stuff you can acquire over a lifetime. For some, materialism is defined by how much land you can acquire, how much you can grow your net worth by or things as trivial as how many different types of hockey cards you can collect.
Materialism gone wild
I see this mostly in the industrialized world because unlike developing countries, we have the financial resources and spare time to accumulate things not required for our own survival. Some people must always have the latest and greatest while for others it’s a numbers game. As for me, I couldn’t care less what I have much less what others think I should have which makes me a marketers worse nightmare 
The good side of being materialistic
There are positive aspects of being a materialistic person. The most obvious is that there are constant challenges as marketers create “must-haves” in smaller product development cycles - before a product would be updated maybe once a year, now for somethings, it’s down to a few months for such things as cell phones. Materialistic people that I know feel great comfort being surrounded by “their stuff”, they get a feeling of accomplishment by looking at what they worked to acquire and if there is ever a nuclear war - these pack rats are a mana from God!
The bad side of materialism
Although there are heavy environmental, social and economic costs in creating a bunch of useless junk, I believe the largest is to ones self. If all your time, effort and investment is put into “stuff” and not “yourself” - what happens when all that stuff goes away? Our culture teaches kids that what you look like and acquire makes who you are as a person - nothing can be further from the truth but sadly, most people take the words from the modern marketing engine over those from within.
One persons junks….
… is another’s treasure - we have all heard this many times… and I think it highlights exactly how worthless our “stuff” really is. If you had 10 000 pounds of chocolate in the Mayan culture you would probably be treated like a living God - purchase 10 000 chocolate bars from Walmart and people will question your sanity! This same analogy can be applied towards just about every other thing we carry around with us, from designer jeans to even rocks… yes, in the 1970s, there was a huge fad across the USA where people would spend lots of money buying “pet rocks”.
Need to Want
I think this ever increasing trend towards materialism started when we no longer had to hunt, gather or build for our survival. When people make so much money (even the working poor) that they can afford to purchase their own food and purchase a roof over their heads then it means they are open to splurging on non-essential items. It may begin with brand name shampoo and as the wealth increases, goes onto cars, boats and even jets for the “lucky” few.
The Bottom Line
Materialism is a temporary state of being - don’t allow it to define your actions or self-worth.
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