Why this damn need to be something at the cost of others?
I'm pretty sure it is everyone's desire to be special that causes this. It is an inherent flaw in the individual human, and we all carry it - some are better than others at controlling it. But modern societies and the internet and SOME have fuelled that need. We used to be a race that looked outward, was curious - now, we are completely focused on what entails success or material wealth - and we run headlong towards it in a booming cloud of entropy. That toxic mix will yield you some envy and hate - mainly, because modern humans are programmed that way. If you think about it, famous or rich people are just the top of the pile of consumers, so generally that is all it is about - and mirroring that effect all the way down to people that live in squalor - they too must consume - or at least take care of the food we waste, by rummaging through dumpsters.
Consumerism and political ideology have long since taken the place of religion for those in the secular world. Big Brother is not only watching, he is singing and dancing, entertaining the masses, as Chuck Palahniuk (roughly) put it. He bombards us with convictions to adopt and products we cannot live without. I have news for you, the only two products you cannot live without are oxygen and water plus a few carbs. Life is NOT complicated, you just deluded yourself into thinking it is. You need next to nothing to exist - so why all this need? Well, because, the word is indeed not need, it is want - and always closely followed by the word more.
And so, envy, a useless, flawed emotion, takes the place of social conscience in modern humans.