Well, I'll stick up for it.

I think it's a comment on the vacuous nature of modern life. People following pre-ordained career pathways, aspiring to nothing beyond the material and settling for a life of 2.4 children and unswerving loyalty to the status quo. They never think outside their little boxes and perhaps suffer some existential angst as a result that keeps them consuming.

I think back to the huge housing estates some of my mates lived on where I grew up, Dad off to the golf club on a Sunday morning, mum cooking lunch, living rooms with a huge telly and no books. Given I grew up in that aspirational middle-class mindset I can see exactly what she means.