One of the strangest things I have noticed about humans is how we never stop being greedy. It is something we consciously or unconsciously drown ourselves in. Sometimes I sit and wonder why the richest people in the world want to make more money. I mean why not just make use of the one you have, it’ll last for all your generations. The person you speak of got drowned in greed. He didn’t even have enough funds to purse political power but he wanted it so badly and couldn’t wait till his business can stand the loss.
the world revolve around being consumptive these days, with the new innovation of technology there's that urge that you want to own them.
i reckon that with the more we got in our hand, the more we want something more perfect, as for example, there's reason why some rich people out there really trying hard to own private jet even though
using commercial plane with business class for example will suffice, because they think about the cutting edge advantage such as being faster arriving in the destination, more comfortable, a lot more flexible, even though it comes at tremendous costs and to fill in the hole that caused by these costs people are seeking more and more money nonstop.
its just like how a kingdom back then trying hard to widen their region, its to gain much more power achieveing what haven't been achieved by the past generations I guess thats the basic reason.