The Golden Calf Still Stands

 

I'd argue that it has become even worse now. At least, at the time when this opera was composed many folks were still genuinely poor and there was little if any done to provide some sort of safety net so they tried to gather wealth as a form of insurance against disease and old age.

While nowadays when hardly anyone in the West goes without, even churches don't preach against consumerism and often encourage abandoning babies in the care of others as long as it's "to have a nice semi-detached" in the suburbs, away from these icky sinful city inhabitants (and by the way, here in Western Europe cities are perfectly safe, with some exceptions) or to be able to afford multiple vacations...

P.S. If the subtitles don't appear automatically, just click on cc