They way I think of this is that everything is relative. Happiness is a product of success and expectations. When everyone around you is rich it influences your

They way I think of this is that everything is relative. Happiness is a product of success and expectations. When everyone around you is rich it influences your expectations thus reducing your happiness (except for buddhist monks?) and driving you to great success or potential despair. So it really is a zero-sum game unless (until) we evolve some enlightenment where expectations are fixed. We'd be content, but would anything ever get done? Does it matter? Sounds like a sci-fi topic. Of course this is a super simplistic way to see it. Both success and expectations have many contributing factors themselves.