I remember a quote that I read somewhere-- it may have been in "The Millionaire Next Door" that goes something like this:
"People say they want to have a million dollars, but what they actually MEAN is that they want to spend a million dollars, which is the opposite of having a million dollars."
It really stuck with me afterward, the way people have bought into the idea of spend spend SPEND-- even the theoretically great idea of saving what you've got has been twisted around so that you can spend some more.