I think it goes without saying that where I'm from, the United States, is a consumer culture where material possessions and wealth are considered very important. While not everyone here falls into that, there definitely is societal pressures to adhere to this sort of thing.

Personally, I don't care about my future spouse having an extremely high paying job, but at the same time I'd like to be with someone who can help contribute to the household.

I think that the American view of poor people can be mixed depending on who you ask, and that is probably the same anywhere. There are people here who think poor people are lazy, and that you shouldn't help the poor. A lot of people are hesitant to give money to poor people, because they think they'll probably spend it on alcohol or drugs. On the other hand, there are altruistic people who believe in caring for our poor. They see them as people who need help, and want to bring them out of bad situations, so they can be productive members of society.

Having the new stuff is definitely something that exists in the US, and the most visible example is with cell phones! I can't tell you how often I've been (playfully) teased about not having a smartphone, or how often I'm told I need to get one. Those things are just considered the thing to have, and when you don't, people take notice. People are always buzzing when a new model of a phone is coming out, and it's always big talk about who has the new model and who doesn't. I know when tablets started becoming popular, that was a big deal, too if you had one. Technology is usually the big place where you'll see the "keeping up with the Joneses" attitude. I observe it less so with stuff like cars or clothes. 

how important is wealth to you?

For me wealth is important but maybe the definition that I have for wealth is different, I don't really care if I have a lot of money or many material possessions, they all are temporary and don't fill me, there are things far more important, the family, the health, being happy with your job, true friendship, etc. I know that money is a mean to buy things that you need like food, clothes, etc. however obsessing about getting more and more money is something that produce bondage and sadness. There are plenty of people who are worried about money and material stuff and forget the "True wealth that they have" Sometimes for pursuing so hard that fake wealth they lose the true wealth and sometimes it is too late to repair the damage.

Does your future partner Husband/Wife must have a high paying job?

No, she must not. It is not important for me, I prefer that she has a job that she really enjoys doing it and makes her happy to do it. The same for me.

How does your culture treat/view poor people?

I think that there are many views about it. Some people are merciful and no matter if they are poor for their own actions they help them anyway. Others think that they deserve what they have and if they help them they use it for drugs or bad stuff. I prefer to help people if I already knew them. I don't like to give money to people who are poor for consuming drugs, visiting casinos, spend their money in buying useless things. Some others are poor because they have suffered an illness or something like that, they are fired, they are violence victims, etc. If I have to choose I prefer to help the second kind of people, the first one only food because if you give them money they spend it in drugs.  

"My country, Russia, is vast and multinational, so the attitude towards wealth is not the same in different regions. I will speak only for its North-Western part."

Elena, people rarely understand it:) Thank you. приятно видеть, что кто-то это понимает:)

The question you rose is a nice one to be discussed. My country, Russia, is vast and multinational, so the attitude towards wealth is not the same in different regions. I will speak only for its North-Western part. Northern russians are rather modest. Possibly this is because of tough climate, when we have to keep together to protect ourselves and our households. Being laborious is more appreciated by the society than being wealthy. On the contrary, having great sums of money, or property or whatever is mainly disapproved as people do believe that those are obtained illegally. 

USA dwellers may consider it to be funny that in Russia being hard-working does not necessarily mean being wealthy...

During the last decade however the attitude towards material wealth started to change. People are getting infected with consumerism and become more and more thirsty for posessing useless things. 

However, in general the society does not put great materialistic expectations over a separate individual. Within my social group (those with higher education and good employment in big companies, including foreign ones) it is considered a good attitude to posess the things, which functions you are able to use fully. I.e, to have a big house for the big family, a smartphone to be able to work on-the-go or an expensive 4WD car to spend weekends fishing on some remote lakes.

As for choosing a partner, Russians still keep considering love to be the main reason for marriage. We are not so pragmatic and think that true love helps to overcome the majority of difficulties. Well, at least most women do so :) In big cities this attitude also starts to change towards involving more logic into choosing your partner. But this logic involves mostly his employment or his potential career and not money by itself.

Interesting topic.

What I can notice here in Brazil there is extremely double way. People from families who had good education, like school education and good manners, want to be more succeed in their lives. They always want to get better jobs, studying more, learning languages and making money as much they can. Those people used being more peaceful, intelligent and social. For some of them having money and status are important but the thing is more impressive for me is the biggest part of people want to work hard and enjoy with their family, friends, life.

Otherwise, people who come from families with bad education, bad manners, they don't want to get responsabilities, studies, and they don't like to follow/obey their bosses and the most of the new generation thinks that the government has the responsability the support their spends.

They're a little lazy and easier manipulated by the tv. Those people who I'm talking don't have a good seeing about the situation the Brazil is facing. Brazilians work so hard big part of their entire lifes and other people don't follow the same example.

Brazil is a beautiful country and very good place to live, although people here face a lot of problems I still think that here is one of the better places in the world.