Imagine life as a human 20,000 years ago. You live with your tribe, 100 or fewer members of your extended family. You and everyone else spend hours and hours every single day trying to collect enough food to keep yourself and your loved ones alive, on alert at all times to the threat of animals or other tribes that might want to kill you and/or steal your stuff.
Every year, disease, violence, hunger, weather, or something else kills a dozen or so of your friends and family. On the one hand, it’s a pretty rough life compared to modern luxury. But on the other hand, you had close, consistent, reliable relationships and you were simply too busy to be bored, depressed, or nihilistic.
Then came the Agricultural Revolution.
Suddenly, huge groups of people started to live together. 5,000, then 10,000, even nearly 100,000 people living in a single city. Suddenly, you didn’t personally know most of the people you live with and many people don’t have to produce food in order to eat. This is when, for the first time, society (our relationship with one another) measurably separated from economy (our relationship with stuff).
Thus was born the Socioeconomy.
The first socioeconomic systems, frameworks for managing large societies in their relationships with one another and stuff, were based around the mantra “might makes right.”
In Feudalism, warlords and their strongest supporters own all the stuff and had unrestricted authority to divvy it up as they saw fit, until someone came along to take it by force.
In Mercantilism, the children and grandchildren of those warlords, who still own all the stuff, try to send as much of it to other warlords as possible in exchange for gold and silver, which they spent on military technology so they can take it back by force.
In Colonialism, the descendants of the warlords go far, far away to steal other people’s stuff to sell it to the other warlord descendants in exchange for gold and silver, which they spend on military technology so they can go out and steal more stuff.
Each stage in evolution recognized something true about socioeconomics.
Feudalists recognized that a single warlord hoarding all the stuff was less stable than a warlord who distributes stuff judiciously to form alliances.
Mercantilists recognized that a society focused on military might results in a weaker military than a society with robust trade and production in support of the military.
Colonialists recognized that homogeneity results in a weaker military and economy than diversity.
Finally, capitalism came along, building on each of those critical lessons, harkening back to lessons we lost from the days of the hunter gatherers, and divested the Government from total economic power, returning ownership of the economy to the People.
Finally, it was the baker who owned the bread, the baker who chose how much to bake, who to give it to, and what to accept in exchange. The fisherman owned the fish he caught, the blacksmith owned the tools he forged, the cobbler owned the shoes he cobbled, and the role of the government was to protect that ownership.
Then came the Industrial Revolution.
Suddenly, there was so much stuff that even ordinary people could have luxuries and free time, and valuable work could be done with no clear connection to keeping anyone alive. Travel became safe and fast. Suddenly you could live days, weeks, years without seeing your family. Individuals became atomized, living for ourselves rather than our families. This is when, for the first time, society separated between friends and family, and economy separated between work and producing stuff.
Thus the Socioeconomy has become insufficient to describe what we want and need out of life. Four pillars of thriving have become distinct.
Pillar 1: Stuff
Since the earliest days of human existence, we have understood the need for stuff. We have physical needs; food, shelter, air. If we ever find ourselves without those things, nothing is more important than getting them.
The need for stuff drove us to learn, to produce, to trade, to explore, to expand.
The need for stuff drove us to abandon our tribes in favor of cities, to abandon hunting in favor of farming, to abandon general labor in favor of specialization, to abandon our families in favor of job opportunities.
No matter what we are asked to give up, it is worth it because, without stuff, we die.
Pillar 2: Family
Humans need one another. Solitary confinement is a punishment even for the most antisocial of criminals.
Family evolves as life goes on, but we always need family.
As infants, we need adults to keep us alive. Without parents, we die.
As children, we need people to look up to and emulate and we need peers to socialize us. Without siblings, we become self-centered sociopaths.
As we approach adulthood, we need significant others to give us a place in the world, then we need children to give us purpose in life. Without spouses and children, we never grow up.
As we grow old, we need descendants to continue to need our help and guidance, and we need their help as our physical abilities fade away. Without children and grandchildren, we lose the will to live.
Pillar 3: Work
For all of human history until the last 50 years, we needed to work because we needed stuff. But the more our technology advances, the less work is needed to supply us with stuff.
But, lo and behold, we need to work anyway.
Though the primitive parts of our brains drive us to pursue leisure and luxury, there is a tipping point at which leisure and luxury have a negative impact on our mental health.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy teaches those of us with social anxiety that the cause of our anxiety is thinking too much about ourselves. And the cure is to focus on making the people around us feel comfortable.
Once we understand that thinking about ourselves causes anxiety, it is no surprise that giving the entire population more free time results in a more anxious population.
Furthermore, our serotonin systems connect reward with achieving goals. When we would die without working, we had to work and achieve growth. But without dying as a motivation, many young adults are free to give up, quit, or coast without material cost, at the extreme cost of never realizing their potential.
Studies show that people who retire at age 65 are more likely to live past 80 than people who retire earlier. Causation and correlation are complex, but it is undeniable that people who live the longest have one thing in common: they are doing something. Some volunteer for charity, some decide to write the book they always meant to, others focus on spending time with family.
Sitting on a beach drinking mai tais sounds great until you’ve done it for three days in a row.
Pillar 4: Friends
For most of human history, we had friends because we had family and work. But as automation has taken over, it has become increasingly easy to be a hermit.
While the need for family is the need for responsibility, the need for friends is the need for social connection. We need to talk to people, to pursue goals with people, to share experiences with people.
Nothing is worth anything when we do it alone.
The debate between Capitalism and Socialism is an insufficient debate because we need all four pillars to thrive. And both systems focus entirely on Stuff to the detriment of human flourishing.
