Most prominently In western nations, there is a very high correlation for a fair amount of people, that their perceived happiness is related to their financial worth in conjunction with their job status, which is thereby centered around their material assets and knickknacks, as opposed to recognizing their worth as a good human being with a personality and traits that are beneficial for themselves as well as to others. In other words, there are plenty of people that willingly participate in the "rat race", so to speak, or try to "keep up with the Joneses", of which, since, to a certain extent, the material game, is often a zero-sum one, means inevitably that the pursuit of those material assets, is going to lead to some degree of disappointment, for a significant amount of people.
Additionally, even those that achieve all of the material wealth that they have been hankering for, do not, in having made that achievement; which may have necessitated a determined personage, drive, determination, and throughput, necessarily become all that happy. That is to say, if, money or status was the sole determinate of happiness, than quite obviously, those with the most, would be happiest and those with the least would be the saddest. Yet, that isn't true, at least, not to the extent that someone that has one thousand times the material assets of someone else, is one thousand times happier. In most cases, the degree of happiness between people of widely divergent incomes, of which, the person with the lower income is still able to procure the necessities of a decent material life, often demonstrates that money and bigger toys, does not make for the happier person.
It can be said, and it has been said, that those that believe that they will be the happiest if they own this, or have that, or go get this, will often find, those objects and material things are, in reality, overvalued. What is undervalued for these particular people is the value of their own true self worth in the sense not of monetary value, but of character. That is to say, the character of a given individual is the greatest gift that can be utilize for the benefit of others, especially if that character is of high integrity, and is by far the most precious asset to pass on from one individual to another and from one generation to another.
Further to the point, if everybody was selfish, of which, everyone exclusively was about their own self, this world would be a tragedy of the highest order. The fact that this world, to a very large extent, is a tragedy, in which, so many suffer so much, clearly signifies that far too many people are about their own selves, and far too many, value material things over character, and consciously make that same choice, day by day, again and again. This so creates a world of disillusionment and disappointment, of which, the losers of this game far outnumber the winners, because the winners are unable to ever find satiation because they live with the false belief that ever more, will bring that lasting happiness that they so long for. In reality, true happiness begins within the psyche of each one of us, in which, if more people were to truly comprehend that it is in the giving, of our good advice, of our compassion, and of our mercy, that this is only time that we truly do increase sustainable worth, then the world would become more harmonious, and far less of the tragedy it presently represents.