[wpietri]

And I'd add that we spend circa a half-trillion per year on various forms of advertising, marketing, PR, etc. (In comparison, the US spends $0.62 trillion/year on K-12 education.) The main purpose of that is to get people to spend money, often by demand generation.

Maybe if we don't want people spending beyond their means, we shouldn't have highly paid professions entirely devoted to getting people to spend without regard to their means.