I find it interesting that jealousy is almost universally directed at what others have, not what others want. In other words, people are not jealous of others' first-order desires. For example, I've never heard anyone say, "My friend wants a new car. I wish I wanted a new car." Is this simply because people (mistakenly) believe that they can control their first-order desires, such that if they wanted those desires to be different from what they are that they could make the desired changes? Or is it the case that evolution had no use for such higher-order jealousy (or indeed, found it counterproductive to survival and reproduction)? I do find myself often wishing I could change my first-order desires; that is, I have many second-order desires (e.g. "I wish I cared more about strangers", "I wish my attraction to a woman was based more on her personality and less on her physical appearance", etc.), but such thoughts did not come to me naturally; this tendency developed in me only in recent years, after much contemplation.
By the way, I'll be taking part of next week off, but plan to resume posting late in the week. Enjoy the holidays!