[alethiophile]

I mean, no, this is just bullshit.

Surplus is what enables complex economies and trade. It also means you have governments trying to take over places, but this comes with surplus because without surplus everyone is too poor to even try.

The life of the peasants in a simple no-surplus economy is brutal and boring and precarious. Getting ruled by kings and emperors, in exchange for getting to participate in the high-end economies they come alongside, is almost always a very good deal.