Our cultural values are reflected in our speech, little clues that reveal where our heart is.  Amazing how much we speak how much a particular gadget or article of clothing costs, where we saw it; how much we talk about stuff in general.   I often remember a phrase I saw on a refrigerator magnet here in Mexico..."The best things in life are not things."  

Curious, here if you ask someone here  "what do you do?", which is perhaps the first thing we may ask someone in the U.S., people don't even know how to respond.  The get-to-know-you questions here are always about your family, feelings and friendship.  That's not to say that people aren't materialistic here...but if they are, they at least try to disguise it a bit.  It's embarrassing to put material objects over people.  

It should be.