I ask myself, how much money would I have to have before gold plating a car would seem like a good idea?
My answer: at no point would that seem like a desirable thing ......
But then I remind myself of something I've told over and over to people who are envious of possessions: More money doesn't bring happiness. Incomes are like concentric circles:
http://i355.photobucket.com/albums/r445/martyr65/sg034_0600.gif
The more disposable income you have, the larger the circle of things you can buy, but there is always another circle, just outside your income, of things you now want but can't afford.
In other words, the more you make, the higher the price of the things just outside your reach which you convince yourself you need to be happy. A starving child just needs a meal to be happy. Fed but homeless people just need a place to sleep in safety to be happy. A yuppie behind on his credit card debt just needs the minimum payment money to be happy. Somehow this works it way up to people needing cooler cars, or faster cars, or more cars to be happy. Ultimately some Saudi prince needs to gold plate one of his many cars in order to be happy.
In the concentric circle you're in, it seems to make perfect sense. In the circles larger than your own, it looks absurd.......
I think it's a Zen proverb that says If you're not happy here and now, you'll never be happy. I would say that you've got to find happiness in the process, not the result. We spend much of our time preparing to live, when we should just live.
Go ahead and chase happiness, which will always out-accelerate you and elude you at the final turn. Me? I just enjoy the drive, the sights, the people, the view.