I'm sorry to say, even low wage workers WANT the "mindless consumption" extras. The doorman at my apartment here in Uruguay (who makes about U$ 1.000 / month)

I'm sorry to say, even low wage workers WANT the "mindless consumption" extras. The doorman at my apartment here in Uruguay (who makes about U$ 1.000 / month) has just spent about a month's wages on some high-tech cell phone with Android (I think it's a Galaxy Note 2). He has a wife and child to feed. The number of people living in hovels (they're called "cantegril" here in Uruguay and "villa miseria" in Argentina and "favela" in Brazil) that have LCD TVs is staggering. There's a subculture that values Nike shoes and steals to get them.