Since I tweeted about this a couple of people have asked for elaboration, so I'm posting it to my rarely used blog. Cheers!
Recently I read "People of God" which is a Catholic perspective on the history of Christianity and the Protestant Reformation. There was some discussion of John Calvin versus Augustine and it mentioned that one of the lines of thought that became prevalent among believers in John Calvin's doctrine was that worldly blessings were a sign of divine election to salvation. In a sense - the origin of the protestant work ethic - work hard, achieve success and well, looks like I'm elected based on how much God has given me! The premise mentioned in "People of God" is that the lack of ability to know one's election in pure Calvinism drove many to strive to at least appear to be elected by material acquisition and accomplishment. In the absence of any other way to know one's state of salvation, perhaps the attainment of worldly success isn't a bad indicator (although this seems to clash directly with Ecclesiastes, Job, and Jesus' teaching about the tower of Siloam, etc).
So my theory is, this byproduct of Calvinism is a component of our modern American culture of overconsumption and posturing over our neighbors and peers to appear successful and blessed. The culture of debt and indebtedness is so pervasive that, as Dave Ramsey points out, many worship at the altar of FICO. The desire to appear blessed that birthed the "Protestant Ethic" may also have aided in the creation of the American materialistic debt culture. It seems Americans feel our value is so closely tied to our possessions that we need to accrue highly irresponsible credit card debt to the tune of $8,329 per household at the end of 2008. (Source: Nilson Report, April 2009) I'm not saying that many Calvinistic Christians consciously follow this line of thought today, but rather that it could be a component of the cultural soup that drives many Americans to ruin our lives (and our country) through unsustainable and ruinous borrowing practices.
Also, I am not aware of this physical blessing indication of election being a legitimate teaching of Calvin - but rather a somewhat subconscious outgrowth of the protestant culture created by the doctrine.
