This is a good thing. If the economy was driven by essentials, it would mean we were in a VERY VERY bad place.

Luckily, our economy is mostly based on luxury items, by world standards.

Luxury for luxury's sake only covers the opposite extreme of essentials. Innovation often involves non-essentials, considered luxuries early on, and sometimes becoming so ubiquitous that they become new essentials, for better or worse. Cars, AC, phones, computers, internet, smartphones...

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with producing entertainment, internet communities, or branded merch. But I don't think it's that controversial to say "micro-influencer selling/sponsoring merch" is not the optimal career path for most of the people that pursue it.

I certainly don't believe everything should be based on essentials, but when very little growth is from honest to god innovation which produces more or better of something, and isn't valued based solely on its anticipated future returns, or isn't based on innovation which only extracts more from the consumer while providing the same or less in return, I'm a little pessimistic. One day somebody who does innovate will eat your lunch. When too much of your economy is based on services or luxury goods, you're sitting on a house of cards.

The "luxury items" economy is junk made for $3 in a chinese factory and drop shipped to someone who paid $55 after clicking on an AI-generated Instagram ad.