the only thing that consistently makes people happy (as opposed to just content, food, shelter etc.) is having higher status than their peers. thus human happiness has a zero-sum component.
The only thing that consistently makes people happy is dopamine. People get that from a lot of things. Some people even get it from helping other people, rather than ruling them. Hell, some people get it from having a lower status than other people (and a ball gag).
Status is often context-specific to a given social environment, meaning it's not necessarily zero-sum. Mom can have the highest status in her church group, Dad can have the highest status of the household by being breadwinner, and Junior can be subordinate to both while holding the highest status in his World of Warcraft guild. Nearly everybody has a high status in at least one arena and a low status in another.
