> but i think this is actually kind of smart 

Claiming you're right because you have more expensive things is a trope associated with assholes for a reason. It's at best an "appeal to authority" fallacy, and at worst it's the lashing out of internal insecurities, but it's never designed to convince someone you're right. It's designed to bully and shame them into obsequiousness.

  > the fact is that steve and everyone he's in the room 
  > with are there because they worship money. that's the 
  > social contract with every job

I can confidently say I'm not doing any job because I "worship money", and probably very few people in those rooms do, not that I'd know personally.

I'm lucky in that I no longer work because if I don't my family won't eat, but that was once why I worked, and it's why most folks hold jobs.

Even the folks in that room probably cared about their career/power/influence/personal mythology more than they did about their bank account balance -- and yes, those two things are related but distinct.