I meant that people invent/buy/acquire stuff to gain competitive edge over people who dont have that stuff.
Look, I'm sure it all started with some guy getting the first home built fire going and yelling "Hey baby, you cold? Come on over here and look what I've got!". Most likely the next guy had to skin a woolly mammoth so she'd have something to sit on and it just spiralled out of control from there. You just can't get laid by casting a come hither look from the glow of a campfire while waving around a tasty freshly killed weasel and a pomegranate anymore. Now you've got to pick her up in a Jag and show her your Mega-pad on the lakeshore. You might get by without that stuff, but only in the absence of some guy who does.