Like liberalism, conservatism, love, and just about any other abstract concept, materialism is ambiguous. It can mean what you said or the thing you said of when it becomes a problem. Strangely, someone could be a non-materialist in the philosophical sense and a materialist in the greedy sense. So maybe greed is a better word. Though that, I don't feel, is descriptive enough. The English language, despite it's huge inventory of words, is not complete.

I stated "Materialism" because it is based on the past observations of Alexis De Tocqueville in his book: "Democracy in America"

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html

This is where he states it:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch2_15.htm

"Materialism, among all nations, is a dangerous disease of the human mind; but it is more especially to be dreaded among a democratic people because it readily amalgamates with that vice which is most familiar to the heart under such circumstances. Democracy encourages a taste for physical gratification; this taste, if it become excessive, soon disposes men to believe that all is matter only; and materialism, in its turn, hurries them on with mad impatience to these same delights; such is the fatal circle within which democratic nations are driven round. It were well that they should see the danger and hold back."

The US is FAR more religious than Europe (and has been for some time), yet we are much more economically wealthy.

The story has nothing to do with the economy, it is about social morality and the fact that religion is not necessary for a moral society.

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It's the difference between suicide and slow capitulation... - Jim Morrison