Although the road to hell is paved with good intentions, no one has said that good intentions per se are necessarily harmful or flawed. Cooperation, trust, and reciprocity are rational virtues (and genetic predispositions) that can spell the difference (at the margin) between survival and death.

James A. Montanye is a retired consulting economist in Falls Church, Virginia.
EconomistsEconomyGovernment and PoliticsLaw and LibertyPhilosophy and ReligionPolitical Theory
Other Independent Review articles by James A. Montanye
Summer 2018 Digital Revolutions in Public Finance
Winter 2015/16 Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others
Fall 2014 The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left
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