At first I was going to agree... then I realized we're neither like Elves or Dwarves and its the reason Tolkien included Men in his metaverse.
Men are culturally diverse and capable of building great cities and societies. We are adaptable, industrious, but not particularly loyal. We tend to be fearful and vengeful. We don't form a symbiotic relationship with the land (Elves) or have a single-overarching purpose to acquire wealth (Dwarves). We conquer our natural environment and bend it to our will as best we can.
The Elves and Dwarves are very one-dimensional in Tolkien's work and they sort of represent specific things.
Multiple races in fantasy settings always struck me as just different aspects of human nature.
We are all humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, goblins, orcs, whatever, each race just highlights one of the facets of complex human society and behaviors.
Also much like Dwarves we don't live in harmony with nature, but for our environment to our liking. And occasionally we are too greedy and cause some disaster or another.
