Why civilization?

For about four hundred thousand years: you don't generally mix numerals (4) with words denoting numbers (hundred) 

We lived in nice places with good, appropriate climates. Plains, forests, islands, and mountains were our homes, not concrete beehives and cement pavements.

We worked for 12 hours a week. That’s instead of the 40 we have now and 70+ we had a century ago. And the job we used to do was that which every man likes doing - meaningful, engaging, cooperative, and requiring us to exercise all our natural talents. We fished, we gathered, we hunted. Today we spend our holidays and weekends that way. We pay to hunt or try to replace it with football , but we used to do it for a living. And we had more time to spend on the arts and communication with our children, wives, husbands, and our tribesmen. Today we bow down before our desks and keep our backs bent for most of our lives and shuffle symbols on paper in stuffy solitude.

There were no wars, no burglary, no fraud, because there was no property to hold, hence nothing to kill for or die for. There were no governments because there was nothing to levy taxes upon. There were no borders, no visas, no red tape, and other chains that we need so much today.

There were no and couldn’t be epidemics that could obliterate half of the mankind, because the groups of people were sparse and separate in distance.

We had all that and then. Wham!

About 8,000 years ago we decided to change everything by settling down and taking up agriculture. Instantly we lost our 12 hour work week, we started to live less long, we got many more diseases, we had to begin organizing cruel governments to rule us, we had to learn and do warfare, we had to learn how to deceive for power and murder for metal. We started to get our first worldwide plagues and pests. We started to enslave people to work in the field, because working in the field is so damn difficult so let another person do it, but me. For the purpose of slavery we ingeniously created racism and nationalism and many other 'isms', because it makes it so easy to maintain power and sway people. Bureaucracy began to grow to feed growing bureaucracy. And this wheel of surprising and fantastic consequences has never stopped spinning.

So why did we do that bold first move? Was it worth it (and eventually and in the process)? Not sure what you mean by the last bit (and eventually and in the process).

Orange for meaning/error (видите, как в основном ничего этого!). Green simply for style

For about 4 hundreds of thousands of years:

For about four hundred thousand / 400 thousand / 400,000 years
 
We lived in nice places with good, appropriate climates[pl. with places]. Plains, forests, islands, and mountains were our homes, not concrete beehives and cement pavements.

We worked for 12 hours a week. That’s instead of the 40 we have/do now and 70+ we had/did a century ago. And the job/work we used to do was that which every man likes doing - meaningful, engaging, cooperative, and requiring the exercise of all the/one's natural talents. We fished, we gathered, we hunted. Today we spend our holidays and weekends that way, we try to replace hunting with football or pay for it, but we used to do it for living. And we had more time for / spent more time on arts and communication with our children, wives or husbands, our tribesmen. Today we bow down before our desks and keep our backs bent for most of our lives and shuffle symbols on paper in stuffy solitude.

There were no wars, no burglary, no fraud, because there was no property to hold, hence nothing to kill for or die for. There were no governments because there was nothing to lay taxes upon. There were no borders, no visas, no red tape, and/or other chains that we need so much today.

There were no and could not be any / weren't, and couldn't be any epidemics that could obliterate half of the mankind / the population, because the groups of people were sparse and separate in space / separated by space / separated by greater distances / distanced from eachother / distant from one another / geographically separate .

We had all that and then. Snap!
About 8000 years ago we decided to change everything by settling down and taking up agriculture. Instantly we lost our 12 hour workweek, we started to live years shorter, we got / developed / contracted many more diseases, we had to begin organizing cruel governments to rule us, we had to learn / develop and do make / enact / carry out warfare, we had to learn how to deceive for power and murder for metal. We started to have / experience / see our first worldwide plagues and pests. We started to enslave people to work in the field, because working in the field is so damn difficult so let any other person do it, but me / let anyone do it, but me [vs. "...another person do it, but not me"]. For the purposes of slavery we ingeniously created racism and nationalism and many other isms, because it makes it so easy / easier / so much easier to maintain power and sway people. Bureaucracy began to grow to feed growing bureaucracy. And this wheel of surprising and fantastic consequences has never stopped spinning.

So why did we make that bold first move? Was it worth it (both ultimately and in the process / presently)?

"(and eventually and in the process)" - Very interesting - I think these are left-over ands from the fascinating way "и" is used in Russian, all over the place (the many ways it appears confuse me, totally!).