What does society need to thrive off of?

Answer 1

This is a highly complex question with at least three roots, and this will, in order not to fill an entire book easily, be a very high-level overview:

A society must survive to thrive therefore it must have resources.

A society must advance socially, technologically and culturally and therefore must have innovation.

And a society must be stable and secure.

The basic definition of resources changes over time. Food is always a serious concern, but as time progresses other resources become important. In ancient times the capture of rival nations and cities provided slave labor that contributed to positive economic growth (in Rome, for example). The development of the samurai caste and style of warfare in feudal Japan was in large part precipitated by a critical lack of iron ores. As time went on other resources became "strategic" or limited the growth of nations and empires: labor, sugar, rubber, oil and uranium ore have all been critical national resources at some point or other.

Continued technological improvement is often seen as a key indicator of cultural advancement, with standards of living and access to goods improving as a result of technological improvement and eventually industrialization.

This means the culture must have conditions that promote free thought, encourage scientific inquiry and drive economic growth. This is why the Islamic world of the middle ages continued to advance while Europe foundered through the Dark Ages.

A failure on this point also caused the eventual destruction of the Soviet Union.

And lastly a nation must be secure internally and externally to become prosperous. A nation that overextends itself and becomes insecure can rapidly collapse to deplorable living conditions (ancient Rome), and internal tensions can lead to collapse of societal advancement (as with the suppression of genetics and other key sciences in the USSR on political grounds).

Answer 2

Resources. Natural, Human, Manufactured.