Who created and continues to believe in money?
Money is inert. We - individually - endow it with more or less power.
Surely that's closer to root cause.
The likes of affluence and marketing have power only over those whose self considers them relevant.
Seems to me we can blame a lot of things (e.g. corporations, capitalism), but they're ultimately mostly - if not entirely - things we've created and persist in believing in to our own demise.
Silly (some of) us!