consumerism is good

I remember from long ago that some of us (more common in india) have an aversion to consumerism and a consumption based society, I carry some of that in me. But last night I found a very good description and justification for a consumption based society:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2009/01/fazzari_on_keyn.html

It seems from the comments left by the listeners that this is a part of a big ongoing debate within economics itself. but the above discussion makes a good argument against the paradox of thrift.

The main logic that got me excited is not directly spelled out in the podcast. What I learned from the discussion was:
- We agree that our goal is to alleviate poverty and to improve the quality of life.
- To do that we need to generate wealth.
- Wealth is generated by commerce.
- To boost commerce we need to boost consumption.