Buying liabilities, things that doesn't have value five years from now. Many save but even when money is saved, it is done to spend and not to invest and the only way to become rich is to invest and not by savings. So , invest in assets and not liabilities.
We have to invest in the right assets not only investing for the sake of investing we can only get rich if we are financially and investment literate you are right that people are saving so they can buy stuff that they want to buy and this is not good, but we should also at all times think of saving for rainy days and to create a profitable portfolio.
People are so materialistic that they want to have the latest gadgets and what's the trending brand in clothing, if we cannot moderate our greed and expenses we can't ever be rich.