Good News: We're Killing Each Other Less

The next time someone reminisces about the way things (never) were, just remember Hobbes was right: "Life in a state of nature is nasty, brutish, and short" (Greater Good).

According to psychologist Steven Pinker (via Paul Kedrosky), "If death rate of early human tribal warfare had continued in 20th century, there would have been two billion deaths rather than 100 million." He goes on to ask "Why is there peace?" Personally, I blame capitalism. Markets provide incentives for cooperation and good governance - and this might be a useful reminder as we watch the regulatory and taxation disaster (Economist) in the making being created by US legislators.