There are two paths to wealth—or even to a comfortably secure financial life. One is to become skilled at earning a great deal of money. The other is to stop needing so much of it. Whether I find the money to buy a new bicycle or simply stop wanting one and realize that the old bike in the shed serves me perfectly well, the effect on my finances is exactly the same.
Of course, there are stages of life when people genuinely need more money, but those stages do not last forever. If we dwell only on the things we cannot afford while watching less honest people acquire them with ease, the result will not be a fairer society. It will only produce needless frustration. It is also worth acknowledging that—with rare exceptions—we are no longer living as people did a century ago, when many of the poor faced the very real prospect of death from malnutrition. There is no reason to invest our circumstances with that level of emotional intensity.
I am not mocking anyone for being spoiled or overly accustomed to comfort. But we should encourage one another to free ourselves from unnecessary and artificially manufactured desires, including the craving for possessions that do little, if anything, to increase genuine human happiness.