[mif]

Similar to the imitation problem, I’ve read somewhere that it’s not greed what drives people to accumulate things (wealth etc.) but envy. You don’t want more for the sake of getting more, you simply want more than your neighbor.

It’s all relative. And difficult to break the cycle.

Possibly links to point 8.

[AtlasBarfed]

But isn't competition more derived from paranoia and fear than envy?

[mif]

I wouldn’t think so. Envy is this funny feeling we hardly ever admit ourselves but which is part of being human. It happens to everyone no matter where they are in the hierarchy. Or, as Bertrand Russell puts it: „Beggars do not envy millionaires. They envy other beggars who are more successful.“

[082349872349872]

leading to the well-known analogy of the crabs pulling each other back into the pot

[leobg]

I think that’s a Buffett quote:

“It’s not greed that drives the world. It’s envy.”

[082349872349872]

That would explain why so few people seem to have finite greed.

Edit: compare Tolstoy, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" (1886)