Even though the element of faith is always a part of all religions, Buddhism teaching has taught me to not blindly believe messages just because it is delivered by superior messengers nor to believe a message without finding the real root course.
Defining what are necessities and what are not is relative to time, society and circumstances. Human are social animals. Neglecting to acknowledge the existence of the human needs is not thing short of being ignorance.
The young generation in China is experiencing economic wealth never before experienced by the older generations because of “the one child per married couple policy”. Even though the policy is no longer imposed by the government, Chinese population growth is still being suppressed by the tax policy and higher education cost. So instead of telling children not to want flashy things, we should tell adults not to have more children more than they can afford.