And that's a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers and indeed start caring so much about material goods. You know, we're often told that we live in very materialistic times, that we're all greedy people. I don't think we are particularly materialistic. I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods. It's not the material goods we want;

The balance of power is the scale of peace.

I'm not gonna let you hurt me no more

The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now.