For reasons emotional ("I want to make a difference") and materialistic ("It's where the jobs are"), a nationwide surge of interest has developed in government work like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Peace Corps.
"It just smacks of desperation," says customer Fiona, "it's so materialistic it's sad". Another, Shereen, says she finds the idea of sleeping in a shop "cold and impersonal", although Robin says he would happily give it a go.
It's been called "American materialism" because as much as it is materialistic, it is American.
To open his concert on Wednesday night at the World Financial Center, he rolled out the bluesy, ultra-materialistic "It's Money That Matters".
To Mai, the joy of Lolita's clothes doesn't mask its inherently materialistic nature: "It is such an excessive hobby to have".
On its face, this question seems money-focused and materialistic, but it's one of my favorites for combatting pride.
The radio jumped straight on the 80s soundtrack, and there was a lot of gleeful nonsense about how we'd become too materialistic, as if it was somehow a good thing we were sinking into this mush.
In an interview with The Martin Lewis Money Show, to be broadcast on Tuesday night on ITV, he said: "It's a cliche of modern life that someone gets up and says Christmas is becoming very materialistic as though it wasn't 300 years ago.
It's not quite anti-materialistic, but it's certainly less materialistic than the mall sensibility.
But if this is what I picked to talk about, I am clearly not that materialistic because it is not very interesting or special".
