Capitalism needs people to spend. The government needs people to spend to keep the economy moving. Unfortunately, this means the government will never teach people to save their money. The whole system is a mess, in my opinion, but you can't fix it by throwing money at it.
This is the perpetual treadmill that USA finds itself on. Many citizens have to work several jobs just to keep up with the bills. It's even commonly accepted that people have huge amounts of debt that they can't handle. What is wrong with society when so much money is being circulated, inflation is so high, but wages can't keep up and people have to work harder and harder to keep themselves from going under?
And yeah, people would just blow that money on useless shit because that's what Hollywood has trained them to do.
Yeah, I really think though that it's more of a culture issue. Maybe an education issue. I mean you point that out too, that Hollywood has trained people how to spend. The thing is that Americans spend all the money they have and even more. People work several jobs to keep up with the bills, but they are almost always spending on things that they could get by without. People in the middle class and even into the upper class are also spending more than they make. Everybody wants more more more. They just complain less about it. I guess they have a bit of a conscience that makes it hard to complain about not having enough money for a bigger house and a third Mercedes.