It's unclear what, if anything, the author is arguing for. Perhaps this absence of solution-orientation is understandable, as most "live within your means" polemic simply means "hey, poor people in developing nations, too bad for you but we want to stop the wheel turning now that we've got enough for ourselves over here in the rich world." Of course there are terrible challenges we're totally failing to confront, but complaining isn't sufficient. Nor are "solutions" that merely condemn others who are conveniently far away to perpetual poverty.