Wants vs. Needs

I've often wondered how with technology at levels that would have been unimaginable fifty, much less five hundred years ago, how there seems to be more suffering, scarcity, and hardship in the world than ever before. (At least that's how it seems) Today it occurred to me that the more developed a country is, the more energy it seems to expend pursuing wants rather than needs. So we get the situation of some people literally consuming themselves to death and others dying of starvation. Thoughts on this theory?