Post: #1

Is a long-term trend according to the economic historians.

http://blog.bcaresearch.com/human-intell...ingularity

Check out the homicide rates in Europe over the century. The Greg Clark thesis is essentially that settled agriculture led to a different selection of genes. Hunter-gatherer societies tend to be extremely violent, hunter-gatherer societies became notably less violent and more humane over time. And now we have Denmark.

Hard to see how the decline in murder rates isn't a good thing for society, even though I'm sure your average hunter-gatherer was a mean mother-f*cking masculine alpha if he was going to survive to be 25. By contrast, your post Neolithic farmer was going to survive and reproduce as long as he tended to his fields, delayed gratification, and avoided rash decisions and fights with neighbors. In fact, with really high medieval interest rates, he could become rich by saving.