I wanted to bring up maslow's hierarchy of needs cause tit came up as you were talking in my mind. And our ability to trade with other people is focused on, what is the utility of this item? Can i eat this? Does it keep me warm? Those are the physiological needs, and that's at the bottom of the pyramid. But once those are met, and for a lot of people, at least in developed countries, those needs are met,. Therefore you move up that hierarchy to things like safety needs, love and belonging, esteem. That's where you see things like self esteem, status, recognition, freedom, respect. The final thing is self actualization.