the 'problem' of people owning too much stuff

Northwest coast Indians (US/Canada) had a hunter-gatherer society, but, unlike most peoples living in this economy, had the food jump on the table for them, living as they did in the lush temperate rain forests. They accumulated so much property that they would customarily hold parties, called potlatches, in which they would give away or destroy much of their worldly goods. If you were invited to one of these parties it was expected that you would throw one of your own in the near future that was even more lavish in its disposal of property.