On reflection, it’s me who was lacking imagination, or rather I failed to properly appreciate the scale you were thinking of. I was only thinking of ~western cultures where it’s quite easy to avoid starvation and get the basics needed to survive (albeit often in a demeaning way). Removing extreme poverty is pretty much a prerequisite for high trust groups to be able to form, and so easy access to cheap energy is certainly worth a lot of attention in that it helps bring people to the starting point.
On reflection, it’s me who was lacking imagination, or rather I failed to properly appreciate the scale you were thinking of. I was only thinking of ~western cultures where it’s quite easy to avoid starvation and get the basics needed to survive (albeit often in a demeaning way). Removing extreme poverty is pretty much a prerequisite for high trust groups to be able to form, and so easy access to cheap energy is certainly worth a lot of attention in that it helps bring people to the starting point.
Glad we agree :)