Has anyone else read arguments put forth in support of Buy Nothing Day, and gotten an eerie flashback to Jimmy Carter's "malaise speech?"

Consider Carter:

But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

Consider Andrew Sullivan:

Each year, we have a communal campaign to persuade ourselves that we never have enough, the new things will assuage our real needs, that buying is the same as living. Yes, of course, some of this is fine, generous or even important. I really did need a new sleeper-sofa. And my boyfriend loves his new, mini-iPod. But the hysteria is a form of cultural disorder.

Hand-ringing over American materialism was as annoying when Carter did it as it is when Sullivan does. If it's so bad, how can this be explained?