There are two opposing forces clashing to cause the entire spectrum of pain, fear, and all matters of evil. Both opposing forces are vital for the growth of sentient beings. It is ironic that they should be at such odds with each other. But they are so because of the ignorance regarding their true nature. The friction between these two forces are what causes all hate, war, jealousy, anxiety, fear, anger, ...the list goes on...
They are:
1. Desire for inner peace, security, and novelty.
2. Desire for material wealth.
See they both are necessary, we want things to help us towards a good livelihood, meaning one that causes inner peace, security, and novelty. However, the second desire must be supplied before we can get to the first desire. The reason for this is because we can hardly be happy or at peace if we are starving to death, or being eaten by bears. We need the bear minimum, clothes, food, water, and shelter. Everything else is just extra, and the extra can make many woes if you let it. Why? Because we become attached to it and assume that if we loose any of it, then we loose our livelihood. This is what Buddha meant when he said, "He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes." Here you might want to replace the words people and "no one" with the word things and/or the word love to the phrase, "has attachment to."
However, there is a reason this is a problem. We get deceived while trying to put too much energy in securing a material world. We start to think that the more we have, the more peace and security we have. Why? Because we make a mistake when we believe that the very process in securing wealth is what makes happiness (meaning peace and security). This is false, however securing material goods is what allows us to live a life of freedom of spirit. See the difference? Gaining material things will allow us a platform to exercise our spiritual selves on, however it will not make us happy. We have to do this for ourselves through spiritual and novelty venture.
Now, we can deceive ourselves for a little while. We might say, we are happy when we do drugs, watch TV, or go to the club. But the lack of spiritual fulfillment will catch up to us because underneath the distraction, there is still the fear that results as a lack of that bear necessity for peace and security.
Now, people will fight to no ends to secure more and more stuff because they believe that it will make them happy. The irony is that all they need are the essentials, any excess stuff is just more to worry about. Clinging to this stuff is what causes suffering more than anything else. Not to mention the wars we go to, to secure this stuff.
Finally, what sounds smart when trying to secure the needs for one of these forces, is not smart when trying to secure the other one. This is why Lao Tsu often talks about people's tendency to see the ignorant as smart, the wicked as righteous, the knowledgeable as wise, etc...
Consider:
We always say that saving money is the "right" thing to do in American society, we rarely ever question this, because we equate becoming more wealthy to a good livelihood. So, we come up with a plan. To save money, we stop giving to charities, we become stingy about where we put our money, we invest billions on fighting criminals and drugs, never invest in art or things that are materialistically meaningless like "Chicken Soup For the Soul" type books.
For a person considering the spiritual life, this would only be smart up to an extent. He sees that by saving money, we might be able to get more with it but we only cause ourselves more worry when it is inevitably going to be taken from us. The destitute might pursue crime to gain our riches, which in turn just brings about more worry, something that could perhaps be avoided if we were generous with our wealth in the first place? People will become more desperate for drugs to escape a crazy world. This is partially why giving up material wealth is a near Universal spiritual practice. They realize that the only way you can enrich a society is to be generous. This more than anything else is why I practice giving to the poor and being "nice" not because I expect something in return but because it makes my society, an extension of me, stronger. If we don't share our wealth, then we can never further receive. This is the Universal law of giving and receiving (or if you must replace the word "receiving" with "taking").
See, if in trying to gain security, we elect a president who "saves" money, rather than spending it on good and valuable services, or even worse one that actually spends money, but mostly on things like war in a misguided attempt to get more peace and security (getting more stuff). Then all we are doing is accumulating riches and getting nothing for it. We then might go on to boast that we are the riches people in the world to boost our Ego, but then we realize that we are unhappy beyond belief. I mean compare us to some of the poorer countries like Mexico. They generally don't use many anti-depressants or anxiolytic drugs, but I remember a good friend of mine went on a trip to Mexico to build a house for a unprivileged family. They were so happy and thankful just to get a nice small shelter from a community. If it were America the same family might be complaining that they did not get a bathroom and then sue for mental damages. Be grateful for what you do have, the rest will come with intention.
So what I mean is, aim for love and peace. Get what you feel you need, but then don't worry about it. Live in love and peace.
