Wealth might be "evolving" beauty over time

Posted by ResponsibleDriver622@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 16 comments

We all know the stereotype: rich people often have really beautiful partners.

If you think about it, that means their children combine wealth + good looks more often than not.

Meanwhile, people with fewer resources don’t always have the same “selective advantage” when it comes to attractiveness in partners.

Now imagine this compounding over centuries. Basically, money today could be shaping the gene pool of tomorrow.

Would society literally “evolve” into beautiful rich elites and less-attractive poor classes?

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Megalocerus@reddit

Generational wealth doesn't last for enough generations, especially if people aren't marrying other wealthy members of their own class.

This observation is very late 19th century: it was the theme of Well's The Time Machine. He forecast beautiful and useless people from the rich and ugly underground people who preyed on them.

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ScaryRatio8540@reddit

That’s a myth from a flawed study.

Thanks to compound interest, Generational wealth is mind numbingly easy to retain through generations - even when having many children.

https://www.cfainstitute.org/insights/articles/third-generation-wealth-curse-advisor-solutions

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Article doesn't seem to have any studies behind it--it's about steps to prevent the dilution of wealth (which it is selling), which wouldn't be necessary unless it actually happened. In any case, the English aristocracy knew you had to marry someone of similar wealth, pretty or not, to keep up status.

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Independent_Egg6355@reddit

You haven’t noticed that upper class people are better looking? What you are suggesting might happen has already happened.

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Easy-Dig8412@reddit

You’re not ugly; you’re just poor. It’s not that wealthy people are more attractive by their nature. They are more attractive because they can afford to be. Look at pictures of celebrities without makeup etc, they look just like the rest of us.

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CoraCricket@reddit

Beauty standards change faster than evolution works. Look at Renaissance era paintings of people who were considered super beautiful, they would mostly be considered quite ugly now.

Also wealth allows people to change their looks on a non-genetic level (think nose jobs, lip stuff, etc), not to mention just having more time and money to spend on looks; fitness, skincare, etc. So choosing a beautiful partner could be more situational than genetic, so those looks aren't necessarily passed down to your kids.

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spencilstix@reddit

Naw. A lot of rich people not hot at all. Many poor people are mega hot. You probably just base your opinion on internet which is not reality. Rich people are not driving lambos to the club. They have a house on many acres. Very secluded, you won't see them.

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INTuitP1@reddit

Yeah you have to scroll wayyyyyyy down the world’s rich lists to find anyone remotely attractive.

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the-forest-wind@reddit

As tech evolves, it is entirely possible that wealthy couples will use gene editing technology to select for certain genetic traits and create "designer babies". This is something that is already possible to an extent. As that technology becomes more advanced, accessible, and cheaper, it will likely be used more by upper middle, or middle class in first world countries- instead of just upper class. Compounded over centuries (assuming the continued and wide spread use of such technology for multiple generations), what you are describing is very possible and likely probable.

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StuChenko@reddit

Don't poorer people have more children? I see more of an Idiocracy type situation happening

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Foreign_Cable_9530@reddit

Probably not, no.

At this point, human evolution is based on how many offspring are produced. To “evolve” over time then you’d basically need to guarantee a few things that can’t be guaranteed:

1.) The wealthy remain wealthy, as a transfer of wealth due to for example, a war, would change the genetic population of “wealthy people.”

2.) The rich people need to be getting GENETICALLY hotter partners. BBLs, lip injections, and anabolic steroids don’t count towards the genetic pool, even though they are disproportionately utilized by the wealthy.

3.) Hot poor people can’t be having more kids than hot rich people. This usually isn’t the case.

And all of this needs to remain constant over hundreds of thousands of years to have any meaningful effect.

Rich people are going to get hotter due to the increased availability of certain tools or tricks that only they can afford, but it probably won’t happened due to genetic evolution because that takes too long and there are too many other variables that would effect the outcome.

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SecretRecipe@reddit

It's already happening and it's compounded by the fact that attractive people have more social mobility so the good looking poor have a much higher chance of moving up the ladder.

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jrv3034@reddit

Man, I've seen some kids of beautiful couples who were, uh... not beautiful.

And I've seen the opposite as well.

I don't think it's as simple as "beautiful people have beautiful children."

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