Ooh, I fancy that book, is it good? I disagree and agree. Wrt material things/status I have an awful lot of friends with enormous mortgage free houses and I'm sometimes envious of them. Otoh, one of them has a husband who's a tosser, another whose husband left her, another finds having 3 children hard work - they all have something less than perfect in their lives and I am very happy for them on the things they're happy about, like their big houses, absolutely, whilst recognising that no-one's life is perfect and that I have a lot of other things they don't have. And if my friend x is happy with her tosser dh, then who am I to question it?
I sometimes feel envious that they have got to x place and I am still struggling along on y plane, mainly because I sold my flat to be a sahm and so I don't even have a mortgage. And for a 40 yo middle class working woman that does make me the odd one out among my friends, many of whom have long since paid it off and own second houses as pension funds.
But I recognise, absolutely, that things are meaningless and I regularly and often count my intangible blessings: a happy marriage, 2 lovely children, a decent income, my health and that of my family, etc etc. And I don't think I'm as driven by status and ownership of things as some people so in a way, no, it doesn't bother me, other peoples material success.
I guess what I DO envy is other success, professional and personal fulfillment success. I envy those who work at a job they love or feel passionate about (I feel neither about mine) or those who are highly successful in their fields. I always thought I'd work in a creative field and have the sort of job people envy because I thought I'd be a writer or artist or actress or something extrovert and high profile and/or famous when in fact my job is low profile and tedious beyond belief.
Interesting subject.