Re: Genes say: When Rich, have Fewer Kids
Robin Hanson (hanson@hss.caltech.edu)
Fri, 7 Mar 1997 13:02:54 -0800 (PST)
CurtAdams@aol.com writes:
>The normal outcome if you have to choose amounts of two good things when your
>budget (here wealth) increases is to get more of *both*. Hence you would
>expect wealthier families to choose to have more kids *and* invest more in
>the kids they have. The number of kids will go up more slowly than the
>wealth, as each kids is getting more resources, but it will still increase.
> This is indeed how animals respond to increased resources, insofar as they
>have control over the quantity and quality of offspring, and it was also the
>situation in early modern (pre-industrial) Europe. It's conventional wisdom
>that this situation applies to most other pre-industrial societies.
>
>The puzzle is why this outcome does not apply to industrial societies.
This thread started by my mentioning a study showing that in a
*pre-industrial* society, wealthy dads did not have more kids.
Robin D. Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/