We have our iPhones, and our video games, and our 200-dollar boots that only cost so much due to a label on the heel. We have our cars, our gas, our money to buy that gas, our jobs to earn that money, our education to attain those jobs. We have food, water, shelter, and clothing. We truly have it all. But even with as much as there is out there in circulation, there will never be enough to truly satisfy.

I often tell myself that if only I reached one goal, my life would be complete. If only I was famous, if only I had won that race, if only I looked like her, if only I could date that guy, if only I could own that jacket—there would be nothing else in the world that I could possibly want. But what if these dreams actually came true? What happens next?

Another dream nurtures itself into reality, into our superficial ambitions, into the realms of consumerism.

It’s true that we humans take everything for granted. As the sun is setting outside, our eyes are glued on the screen displaying a reality television show stalking the pathetic lives of shallow celebrities. We no longer enjoy strolling through the park, as long as our thumbs are exercising along the keyboards of our phones. Apparently there is nothing to eat in our overcrowded fridges while children in third world countries scavenge for any edible scraps they can find, not to feed themselves, but to feed their younger siblings or dying parents.

So no, there will never be too much stuff because there could always be more. Envy will always root its way into our minds and our bar for satisfaction will continue to ascend closer to the heavens. As long as we’re still human, less will never be more, and more will never be more neither.

We’re eternally haunted by this curse that our happiness derives from material objects. It’s the most lethal virus upon this planet—the most contagious. We see and we want. We want and we need. We need and we get. We get and we see more.

Just like the universe itself, the cycle of greed is infinite, but I’m not too sure of the former.