Exercising self control and willpower requires effort.  I have this conspiracy theory that everyone is very deliberately run off their feet and shamed into being "productive" every waking second and deluded into thinking that's somehow "good work ethic" precisely so that they're too exhausted to spend the additional eeffort on self control and willpower and will just mindlessly buy crap to fill voids because that's infinitely easier than doing other things that might fill those voids (because the other things such as building and cultivating relationships or engaging in hobbies also requires effort).