[mikekchar]

Culture is not universal. Although many people in the world aspire to an American style life, each culture has it's own roots. Appealing to those roots is probably important in guiding people to a different, but not worse, way of living.

For example, in many parts of South East Asia people avoid heating and air conditioning. It's considered unhealthy to over manage your environment in that way. Where I live, in Japan, I've always thought it was really unfortunate that western clothes became popular -- for most of the south western portions of the country it really is a under performing choice. If, when Japan was transitioning from a poor country to a rich country, an emphasis was made to prefer native clothes which are better suited to the climate, it would have made a significant difference in how people acted.

There will always be a subset of the population that are going to want the American utopia of a detached, climate controlled bungallo full the the brim with furniture and gadgets, but it doesn't need to be the goal of the entire population -- even if they want a comfortable and rich lifestyle. Appealing to the existing culture is a good way to get people to appreciate a different way of living.