This is more true than most people realize. It is also a perfect demonstration that society is far more valuable than it's economy.

I watched a video yesterday that documented a journey down the Nile in the mid-80s. The detail of the societies encountered, the Nuba, Dinka, and other tribes, revealed that the concept of economy was highly variable in societies that generally operated similarly, despite enormous differences in what they ate, how they worshiped, and transferred value.

In all societies there reported, family was the core of value and economic mechanisms were employed to focus wealth in families - until they got to Cairo. The myriad particulars of the unique societies that made them look very different from what we're familiar with were no longer obvious, and people in Cairo dressed like everyone else in the West, and the economy no longer was focused on family, decreasing the power wielded by heads of household and increasing the power wielded by the state.

In the West, we're tricked by economic incentives to deliver our wealth and power to the state. Every time I fix something instead of replacing it, I increase the power of family, and freedom, while decreasing the tyranny we are subject to.