And yet look at how many people medicate to handle life.
Think of how it was to be a part of royalty - there's a lot of isolation involved. Humans need social interaction. When we can't get it, sometimes we fill our lives with stuff that owns us. That doesn't work, so we try drugs.
Perhaps it's more like, we're not fighting the root cause of the problem: we're all lonely and scared.
No amount of money, or social status, or stuff is going to help us how to learn to love, and be loved. It's just going to make others envy us and envy isn't love.
We love to distract our own terrifying thoughts with stuff (work, television, busy social lives...), instead of learning how to handle an overactive brain that spends the majority of its time trying to scare us shitless.
Like I always said, a cold beer on a hot day feels so much better when you know you've earned it. Today, do we feel we've earned that big TV, the big car, the free social housing? It's all faceless and non-creative.