Putting aside the issue of קדושים תהיו and ולא תתורו which prohibit excessive immersion in gashmiyus [Ramban and Sefer Hachinuch respectively], there is another important point.
There is an incredible amount of buying that people do. If someone is emotionally and spiritually fulfilled they simply don't need to buy so much stuff. So all of this excess consumerism that we have in our communities is an important data point. People are not sufficiently fulfilled on the inside so they look for things on the outside.
Do you want to save money? Grow as a person and as a Jew. You will spend far less and feel no lack.
Oh - and you will also grow as a person which is why you are on earth in the first place!!
Today I was thinking about this b/c I found myself in a shopping mall filled an endless flow of people dressed in distinctively Charedi garb. [I was not there to shop but to have a dental x-ray for some very, very exciting, extensive work Hashem has gifted me with the zchus of having to do, thus enriching my dentist (for sure) and healing my tooth woes (אי"ה)!!]
I am like - what are you all doing here? You don't have enough clothing so you need more and more and more? You don't have food at home so you need to go to all these eateries? You need a fancy watch even though you already have one on the phone almost everybody was talking into?
I am not talking about being an ascetic. I am talking about buying things we don't need for a temporary dopamine hit until it wears off and we need a new dopamine hit.
[When I went for my x-ray the secretary was very very edgy. She thought I was about to go into a room she didn't want me to enter, so she sternly said "Tell me what you want and I will get it for you". I told her that I need to do something that requires a very special bracha after I do it. One of those areas of life where there is no "דין שליחות"].
