Why is enjoying stuff, such as a big television, or a beautiful house, car, or piece of jewelry, bad? Materialism is only problematic when it causes someone to steal or to spend so much time working that he neglects other aspects of life. A coworker friend lives in a mansion. After we visited him, my middle child said he wants to live in a mansion someday. If that dream motivates him to work hard, good for him -- and for society.
Enjoying stuff is fine until 1) getting it becomes an end in itself and 2) large societal inequalities begin to develop. It's also a problem when people with said stuff get so self-focused, they forget about the less fortunate people around them (or blame them for not working hard enough when many of them either have two minimum wage jobs or can't find a job).
I'm not arguing that everyone should be paid the same amount and everyone should have the same things, though as a nation, we aren't doing a good job of meeting minimum requirements right now. I'm saying that too much focus on material things, IMO, is bad individuals and bad for a society (e.g., thnk of the "Americans, go shopping!" response to 9/11 and the fact that our economy is based too heavily on retail sales. It could all collapse very easily). Which I kind of think the OP was getting at (the first thing, anyway).
