It isn't so much a question of covetousness, as it is leverage and how power and wealth are used to leverage more power and wealth.

The Ancients devised debt jubilees as circuit breakers to such feedback loops, but here we are, stuck in the same doom loops.

Michael Hudson is writing a series of books on how it broke apart the ancient world. Here are some interviews he did on Naked Capitalism;

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/04/the-delphic-oracle-was-their-davos-a-four-part-interview-with-michael-hudson-about-his-forthcoming-book-the-collapse-of-antiquity-part-1.html

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/04/michael-hudson-debt-and-the-collapse-of-antiquity-part-2.html