What is more important: the well-being of society or the well being of an individual?

I personally think that the well-being of the society is more important then the well-being of the person. In the book "The Bar Code", the whole society is obsessed with this tattoo which is like your whole life put onto your arm. Kayla, the main character in the book thinks the government is going to far with this whole tattoo thing, so she is trying to change that with some other people that think the same thing. Kayla's dad who ended up killing himself because of something in the bar code of or something about it. If the society was better would anyone be ending up like they are so far in this book? Even though the society does not make choices for the people it has a big influence on them.