Unlike consumption, which is individualistic, a distinctive characteristic of human production is that it tends to be cooperative in its nature.

This cooperative element of production is not by planning or design – it is inevitable.  Humankind does not survive well much less prosper in a hunting, foraging economy.

In those long periods during which men have lived a hand-to-mouth existence of hunting and foraging, virtually their entire lives have been spent simply finding enough food upon which to survive.

Living perpetually on the brink of literal starvation, historically the human existence has been one characterized by rampant disease, privation, and discomfort.  Human beings worked hard and long, faced misery and sickness, and almost always died young.

Since consumption begins from conception and birth, and since hunting and foraging tasks cannot be undertaken by an individual from the moment of birth, by necessity it is required that those who ARE hunting and foraging (and later on, producing) must always come up with a surplus beyond their own individual needs, in order to take care of and provide for the young, the elderly, and the sick or temporarily disabled, or those who cannot otherwise hunt or gather for themselves during the periods of their youth, infirmity, or disablement.