Excuse me. If you say you are disillusioned with American Materialism and at the same time want better personal financial prospects in America, it is a contradictory statement.
Not necessarily. American materialism is also a cultural ideal. You have the big house with the big yard in the nice neighborhood full of homes very similar to your own. You drive a big car. Maybe several big cars.
That culture has created a place where you can't really get around by foot. Where you don't necessarily have a tight-knit community with stores just a step down the block.
There are good and bad things about it, no doubt.
But I could see how someone would dislike it.
I was just in Romania, for instance. I could get up in the monring, walk a few doors down, and pick up freshly baked pastries from the local bakery, if I wanted. Take them back to my friend's place. It took all of 4-miinutes. You can't do that here.
There's a lot that we can do that they can't, of course, too.
Anyway, the article doesn't define what it means by materialism, so it's no use scrapping over it, really.
Finacial prospects does not mean you must go out and spend it on the latest junk coming off the assembly lines, or buying row housing in a new 'development where the only difference between every third house is the color the trim is painted.
Materialism in America is get out of school and get straight into debt for the rest of their lives, because we have to have the latest "things" now. having things is THE most important aspect of your lives.
There is no American 'apple pie' culture anymore, community life and values have dissapeared almost completely.
What is there to look forward to? Unless you can afford to move to a small rural town where there is still a glimmer of a community, it doesn't exist. To a Polish immigrant, comming from a culture where everyone is part of the community, it's a boring place with nothing to look forward to. You are lucky if you even know your nieghbors names.