How fragile is human morality? More specifically, to what extent is our current sense of morality dependent upon economic considerations? Humanity pats itself on the back for its moral progress, and progress does seem to be the right word for it. Although it's taking longer than it should, the proportion of the world which believes that rights should not be dependent upon gender, race, social status, or sexual orientation has gradually increased in recent decades and centuries (although there are obvious exceptions). But do we deserve credit for this progress? It seems to me that much of the progress has been a result of economic considerations; namely, enlightened self-interest in the form of increased opportunities for reciprocal altruism. As just one example, slavery was popular worldwide (even with the Greeks, Renaissance Italy, and the U.S. before the civil war) because there were economic benefits, and it has become less common now that those benefits have been greatly reduced (for example, the industrial revolution made fossil fuels a less expensive option than human labor for many tasks). Would the North have been opposed to slavery if it had been benefiting economically by slavery as much as the South was? (Similarly, the progress of animal rights advocates has certainly been slowed by the fact that humans benefit economically by treating animals so poorly.) My overarching question is, how "sticky" is our morality? If circumstances change again, might all our moral progress be wiped away?