Cooperation

What we are getting at is, there are two possible ways to subsist in a situation of this kind: Everyone works together and life is good and sustainable, or everyone looks out for themselves and life is good for a while but miserable in the long run.

The very question that we arrive at is, for a group of hunters, how to ensure cooperation?

Alas, this is the classical situation where free market doesn’t work and external governance is necessary.  In other words, we need laws and regulations so that favorable behaviour (that is, cooperation and compliance with the group strategy) is rewarded and, more usually the case, punishment would be given to those who work for their own short term benefit and breach the motto of cooperation.

Go read Dixit and Nalebuff’s The Art of Strategy.