Nothing wrong with chasing money and status, especially in the initial stages of one’s career. If that’s what _really_ makes him/her tick, great. Money especially tends to have multiplicative effect over time, most jobs you take will necessarily pay more than the previous job. But notice the “really”. There’s 45 years of work in a lifetime, and one needs to find a deeper motivation than money and status.
I don't think that there's anything wrong with expecting some money and appreciation to follow genuine achievement, but focusing on those rewards to the detriment of actually making something cool is going to be pretty unfulfilling and unsustainable career-wise, doubly so if you are overt enough that your colleagues notice.
Yeah, you can play whatever game you want in life. However, playing the money game is dangerous, and can easily create attachment and greed. I'm not necessarily preaching about his choice of game -- more about his lack of perspective, really.
Not playing the money game is dangerous as well. Like it or not, money is a potent signaling mechanism. The more you’re able to charge, the better you’re treated, the easier it is to get access to “cool” jobs and projects, and the easier it is to throw in the towel on the shitty ones. I’m not even talking about things like compound interest and the peace of mind that comes with financial independence in your mid to late 30s, even just tactical considerations make it worthwhile to extract as much money as possible from the employers. After all, they do try to extract as much productivity from you as possible, so it’s only fair to reciprocate. There’s no shame in it, and pursuing meaningful work at the same time is far from mutually exclusive.
