The only five things society needs?  Is it really that simple?  Not exactly, though I'll ask you to read the following excerpt from Escaping Oz: An Observer's Reflections to gain valuable insight on this provocative statement.

Man or woman is an economic animal.  Without external interference, people will take action to maximize, or at least provide a minimum level, for their economic welfare.  In the first two Escaping Oz books, I postulated four economic laws, the last of which suggests that people will act on their behalf in a manner that satisfies others acting on their own behalf.  Strip away the noise and it's that simple.  People acting in this manner represent a market.  The market is a collection of people acting on their own behalf for the benefit of others.

Imagine being in a bazaar where you can buy anything (goods or services) you want.  Also, you're selling something others want.  If there's no money in this bazaar, everyone decides the proper exchange value.  If you're selling oranges, the vendor selling flour tells you how many oranges you must offer to get a pound of flour.  The two of you negotiate an exchange.  Imagine doing this with every other vendor.  While bartering is cumbersome, you know that it's possible to get everything you need.

If we introduce money, bartering goes away.  Is the money valid?  Is it counterfeit?  Can someone make money without a matching effort?  For money to work, everyone must agree to use it for the exchange goods or services.  It must be measurable, and it must represent something of intrinsic value.  You could argue that money is the single most important invention in economic history.

What about the market's security?  Do vendors feel secure selling their wares without fear of theft or other crime?  What happens if the flour I bought or exchanged contained worms?  What if we thought we bought one pound, but instead we received three-fourths of a pound?  We should hold vendors to a product standard — they need to deliver what they're supposed to.  In this bazaar, while vendor reputation is important, we'd like criminal and civil laws protecting the market.

If you agree that people are economic animals, you'd only need goods, services, money, civil laws, and criminal laws.  Society would desire more, though to have a functioning economy, this would be it.