I used to think that the lack of contentment we seem to feel with our current lifestyles (which qualify as opulent luxury by the standard of any king of days gone by) was a great tragedy.

I no longer believe this. The dissatisfaction we experience is a drive to accomplish more and drive the continued betterment of our race; the acquisitions and "keeping up with the Joneses" drive our productivity. There are perverse incentives, of course, to maximize our pay while minimizing our work. But at some point, to buy a $10,000 72" Plasma LED HDMI Gigajoule Laser TV, one must have done (or at least been around for) $10,000 worth of work.

Now, maybe Dilbert's dissatisfaction with his lot in life doesn't drive his productivity. Geeks are wont to build cool stuff for the sake of building cool stuff. Maybe I'm overanalyzing something that we should just laugh at. But as They Might Be Giants sang, "No one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful. Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful." Beautiful not because tragic sadness is good in and of itself, but because by striving to overcome our endless frustration, we guarantee our progeny a better quality of life.