Why? So we can feel better about ourselves because some other person found more financial success and still managed to botch it all up? I don't understand this. People read garbage tabloids for the same reason. Why does seeing someone else's hard fall make people feel better about having never achieved their own goals?
Yes, precisely, and not necessarily because we think they didn't deserve their short-lived wealth, but rather for the same reasons that people prefer relative wealth to absolute wealth (citation needed): Because you can't stand it when others fare better than you. And what's wrong with that? It is the foundation of a healthy competitive spirit which drives people to succeed.