LOL. For a lot of people "self-actualization" ends up with sitting on a couch in front of an idiot box, eating chips. Nowadays it might be in front of their FB feed, but that's essentially the same. And I'm not sure what are "socially-approved-of lifestyles" -- that seem to depend a lot on the society in question.

Look, the mere fact that you condescend at and disapprove of the actions of others doesn't mean you've proposed any kind of alternative (no, survivalism does not count, that problem was already solved), let alone demonstrated a metric by which your non-proposed alternative is superior (not even the "I like it" metric).

No. My intuition is that the threat of pain/hunger/etc. makes people act. Incentives matter.

Now explain why those actions or incentives matter, that is, what makes them superior to alternatives. No, sneering does not count.