Shall I Compare Myself to Thee?

I have a friend who likes to report everything that's good about her. She's like an open book...always bragging about how beautiful life is for her and all the good things that life has to offer her for the day. She tells us about her massive mansion...her excellent and intelligent children...her expensive and up-to-date wardrobe and shoe collection, her lavish car and even her husband's large income. From time to time she would invite friends to her exquisitely lovely abode just to exhibit her new, expensive, Italian furniture or even her new set of pots and pans, plates and cutlery and the list simply goes on and on and on. I do not know her intention of doing so but wanting to safeguard our friendship...I would like to believe that she means well. However, in the midst of all the wow...the ooohh and the ahhh... there is a friend of ours who happens to be affected by all the parade and charade in a bad way. She becomes stressed out when she reflects on all her shortcomings and weaknesses as compared to the other so-called "luckiest person on earth". With full conscience, she starts whining about her house, her kids, her clothes and everything around her. She even starts to question her husband about, what suddenly becomes, his "insufficient" income and how he should be giving her more pocket money. The question is...if such is the outcome...should she be comparing herself to those who may seem luckier than her in the first place? Why can't the comparison be made with those who are less fortunate so that we learn to be more thankful for what we already have? What is your yardstick for being lucky, happy or even rich? If happiness and fortune is defined according to the amount of material wealth you possess...then have you ever heard of the saying that money cannot buy everything? Can a human being find his/her ultimate satisfaction? Perhaps we should learn to appreciate what we are given before they are taken away from us forever. After all...happiness comes in different forms and sizes.