Interesting post and agree with your comments. Agree with your avatar too.Having no money can prompt people to crime. Having too much of it enable people to do wrong things.
End of the day, it is greed. But what is greed ?. Wanting to have and show that one have more than all the neighbors ? . A lack of self esteem that fuels a desire to show off with material acquisitions and hence make the declaration that " I am better than you " ?
Then, shall we say that it is all boil down to value system . We place wrong hyped values and wrong significance to things that are material and declare that this is "SUCCESS" !
Maybe we ought to define success..success in life ?
People usually define success based on material or status achievements.
Some try to pretend that success is looking after their families. It makes me cringe when multi millionaire athletes say things like "I need to do what's best for my family", when negotiating their multi million dollar contracts.
Success in life should be defined as how much a person has helped others who have no relationship with him or don't benefit him in any way.