Plato’s Bloated Society

In book two of Plato’s Republic, Socrates traces the development of the state from just four or five people, to a bountiful and peaceful society, to a “bloated” or “inflamed” society of greed and excess, leading to war. Here’s my condensed paraphrase:

People have needs and desires which they cannot meet alone, so they form states. The first human need is food, then shelter, and then clothing, so we can have a state with one farmer, one builder, and one tailor. Add to that a shoemaker, and perhaps one more person, and we arrive at the barest possible state with four or five people. Each person specializes in what they excel at, so tasks are done better and more efficiently.

None of these laborers will excel at making their tools, so our state begins to grow, and we add carpenters, smiths, and other craftsmen. The people might also want beasts of burden, and wool, and hides, so then the state needs herders. At this point the state is not very large – but it isn’t very small, either.

The state will then want to import goods. This requires traders, and also goods to trade with. The state must then produce not only for its own needs, but for others’ wants – so that it can trade. So the state now requires more farmers and craftsmen. And if trade is to reach across the sea, the state will need shipbuilders and sailors. Then for people to exchange the many goods being produced and procured, the state will need a marketplace, and some kind of currency, and a class of retailers.

At this point, the people in the state will have grain, fruit, vegetables, cheese, wine, clothing, shoes, houses, and beds. They and their children will be able to feast, drink wine, sing hymns to the gods, and live long, healthy lives together in peace and happiness – and they will be careful not to exceed their means so as to create poverty or war. This is a true and healthy state.

But many people will not be satisfied with this simple life, and will desire further conveniences and luxuries. There will be sofas, tables, meat, sweets, perfumes, paintings, plays, music, fashionable clothing, decorations, prostitutes, servants, tutors, nurses, barbers, swineherds, and more. For all this, the healthy state is no longer sufficient, and the land which originally supported its inhabitants cannot do so. Then this state wants the land of its neighbors; and if these neighbors are also exceeding necessity and accumulating wealth, they will likewise want this state’s land – and then comes war. Wars, and almost all evils in the state, follow from these causes.