“Poverty wants many things, avarice all.”Publilius Syrus · Sentințe · -50 · sentința 9
Poverty has a finite list of needs; greed has no list, only the absence of any limit.
Poverty can be helped: it has a list, however long, of concrete lacks, and the list ends. Greed has no list, because it isn't missing any particular thing, it's missing every limit. That makes it harder to cure than poverty. A person without a home wants a room and a meal; a rich person who wants ever more lives a scarcity no amount of money can fill.
Why it matters It helps you tell apart a real need you can actually solve from a want that renews itself with every purchase and never ends.