Which illustrates the disgusting superficiality and emptiness of those people.

I once listened to a lecture where the ethos of consumerism was blamed for the paradox of low birth rates among higher earners over lower earners, that is, you don't find that happening in non-consumerist societies. The reason was that higher earners were more likely to be keeping up with the Jones' and thus preferred to spend their extra income on buying crap and showing off. This tendency might actually be reversed among very high earners who can afford to do both. (FYI, the cost of having an additional child in a traditional society is actually cheaper as you have more children.)