'Never understood the logic behind consumerism and wealth. All consuming stuff does, is to re-circulate your own cash flow back into the market. It's just a net that captures money. It does not directly mean that your healthcare systems are robust, it doesn't mean that the quality of living has raised, neither does it mean that the general level of technology has risen. It truly just means that the market has adapted to entice people to spend their funds, which may coincidentally also promote the rise of certain cultural items, like food, musical instruments, furniture, accessories...Anything like transportation, gadgets and trinkets require a direct investment by wealthy individuals.
That sort of corporation-thinking seems backwards to me.