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One of the most enjoyable things about my new job are the people that I work with.

One of the guys, Jeremy, has one of the most colorful personalities ever. He's quite intelligent yet has a very great mix of charisma that makes him both a joy to talk to and to work with. Jeremy, like me, is also quite into numbers.

This is important because the other day, while we were having lunch, we started talking about the gross uneven distribution of wealth at our company. Recently there was an initiative to raise extra capital for the company but along with that extra capital came a way for members of the executive team to also find ways to make an incredible amount of money. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jeremy just wanted in on some of the action. He admits pretty freely that he is quite satisfied with how much he is getting paid, but would LOVE to have got in on the overnight wealthy train the e-team was riding [for the record these guys make MUCH more than little peasant fred; whose salary, extrapolated, would be standard entry-level 30k+].

I'm writing all of this down because a very important thought emerged from this casual conversation. I was left thinking..."where does that come from anyway?" In other words, everyone would love to have more money (even those with a lot of money), but where does that desire for more come from? Is it innate? Is it learned from culture? Is it uniquely American?

This train of thought becomes especially dangerous because there quickly reaches a point where someone can discipline their own appetite; that is, the "I want" slowly transforms into an "I need" and the implications are devastating. Every bad verb feasibly occurs after this transformation.
Not always of course. And very rarely does it happen overnight. But, just like a cancer, the appetite grows until it starts to wholly consume everything that's in its path. Tragic.

How does one set up safeties to guard against this?

Perspective change.
Specifically when the focus shifts from this life to more than this life.