[drawkbox]

People do cooperate on a self-survival instinct though, cooperating now let's you get ahead of others together. However, there are always competition and hierarchies within the team/group as well that determine choices and game theory within the group cooperating. The larger the team or less dependent then the more each player may be unhappy or not doing the best for themselves personally.

For the most part, people cooperate when the outcome of cooperating puts them at a better place. In the same way everyone is unique but they copy proven paths to achieve certain ends or move to certain stages where they can eventually break off and get ahead personally. In the same way groups suck but we all live better that there are other people.

All of life is similar, self-interested for survival, but they want a place of their own and territory, eventually.

[kriro]

For me comparative advantage (economics) was always enough to "justify" cooperation as a good general attitude in life.

[ajuc]

Comparative advantage theory (like most of economy) is a misleading simplification.

Historicaly the countries that were on the "low profit" end of international trade and followed the comparative advantage theory advice - lost (see Argentina), and the countries that contrary to the theory tried to move to more complex products/services and bigger profits - won (see Germany, USA), even if they had to abandon their comparative advantages, suffer international trade restrictions, etc to get there.

It turns out industrialization not only makes you better at producing machines - it also makes you better at producing food, and almost everything else. Meanwhile producing food just produces food.