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To: DrC; 101voodoo

Not natural selection; you get heart disease after your reproduce and get your children to a reasonable age for the most part. Have babies and die is a workable evolutionary strategy.

And the relationship does run in the other way - intelligence, as measured by education, correlates with later age at birth of first child for men and women, and fewer children for women (and maybe men.)


12 posted on 02/10/2010 9:31:40 AM PST by heartwood
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To: heartwood
And the relationship does run in the other way - intelligence, as measured by education, correlates with later age at birth of first child for men and women, and fewer children for women (and maybe men.)

What's your point? If intelligence means later age at birth then who makes that decision? It would b the more intelligent people, correct?

14 posted on 02/10/2010 9:47:38 AM PST by 101voodoo
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To: heartwood

...fewer children for women (and maybe men.)

&&&
Yeah, we’re so smart we’re not reporducing at replacement rate.


15 posted on 02/10/2010 9:51:44 AM PST by Bigg Red (Palin/Hunter 2012 -- Bolton their Secretary of State)
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To: heartwood

“And the relationship does run in the other way - intelligence, as measured by education, correlates with later age at birth of first child for men and women, and fewer children for women (and maybe men.)”

I’m not sure this establishes that the relationship runs the other way. Surely you are not claiming that mere fecundity is species-preserving? The reality is that birth rates are highest in the most impoverished (and least educated) parts of the planet because statistically, you need many more children to ensure enough survive to take care of YOU in your old age. But parents with high education don’t need children for retirement security and moreover, in advanced more educated societies, life expectancy is much higher, so the fertility rate required for a stable population is much lower.

The original article implied that life expectancy was proportional to intelligence. The evidence you cite certainly does not indicate the opposite: quite the contrary, it is consistent with it. Those with intelligence (measured by education) may have fewer babies, but such babies are much more likely to survive, grow old etc. Moreover, affluent societies are so productive that workers can save for their own retirement without relying on their children to feed and care for them once their “productive” years have ended.


17 posted on 02/10/2010 10:20:39 AM PST by DrC
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