When you think of the "secret", you do not think of consumerism right off the bat but when you hear how the message of the "secret" has been taken and then utilized for marketing campaigns to get people to think more positively about themselves, you begin to wonder how authentic the message is in the first place. True one has to be positive about life to be happy and that true happiness can only happen when one does not let the smaller problems interfere with the bigger issues. When philosophers are being called to give motivational speeches and when the public speakers get into the act, to encourage a greater material wealth, then you really begin to wonder about the motivational force behind bringing the "secret" of prosperity to the masses.
There is no real secret here, all you have is a bunch of gullible sheep willing to soak up anything that sounds minimally encouraging; the public is easily duped to working harder so as to achieve those goals. If anything, the motivational speakers are making a good buck because people want to hear something encouraging in how they can put an end to their monetary miseries, in how they can even get rich quickly. For the most part, people will buy into the "motivational" plan with little interest in changing their lifestyles. This is not to say that motivational talks are worthless, when they do help to encourage people to face a brighter future and to keep bad experiences from interfering with a positive outlook on life.
It was in the sixties when people like Packard new that industry would press people to buy more because it meant a larger productivity, they did not know though that productivity did not necessarily guarantee greater consumption; eventually it meant a lot of waste.
Today we are little ahead of that mentality. Agencies still harangue people to work harder so that they can consume more; productivity would then be at a healthier state and western nations would reduce their debts. Very few people, especially in economic sectors would want to institute a regime promoting a drop in consumption and that is the sorry state we are in. That is much of the "secret" behind expanded economies and the generation of quick wealth. Realistically the world can only hold a small number of very wealthy people anyway.
