Stor befolkning är nödvändig för utveckling

The Economist redovisar ny forskning (via Johan Norberg) som ger stöd åt idéer som tidigare framförts på denna blogg.

Om "den ädle vilden" som inte är så ädel:

To gather his data, Dr Bowles trawled through ethnographic and archaeological evidence about warfare between groups of hunter-gatherers. [...] They suggest that 12-16% of mortality is the result of such low-level warfare. This is a figure much higher than, for example, the mortality caused in Europe by two world wars...

Om att större befolkning ger bättre levnadsstandard för enskilda personer:

The more people there were, the more exchange there was between groups and the richer the culture of each group became.

[...]

According to Dr Thomas, therefore, culture was not invented once, when people had become clever enough, and then gradually built up into the edifice it is today. Rather, it came and went as the population waxed and waned. Since the invention of agriculture, of course, the population has done nothing but wax. The consequences are all around you.