Hi Simon, Contraception actually heightens the ga...

2009-11-30T10:19:43.573-05:00

Hi Simon,

Contraception actually heightens the game. No more shotgun marriages, no more children demanding male time and energy. Instead both males and females are free to divert their energy into acquiring social status.

I do agree with you that people do always look for status goods. That is why I am a believer in abstinence and monogamy. The monogamous side of human nature dramatically de-escalates the status competition because there are strong ex ante limits on the ability of males to gain sexual access to female. (There is also a strong ex ante limit on the ability of high status females to gain a large share of the group's resources). That was the point of my post! Monogamy de-escalates the status-seeking arms race.

I am sympathetic to the Left's concern about luxury goods. In many ways I am a Puritan at heart (I know this comes as a tremendous shock!) But luxury goods are merely one way to signal status among many. I'd rather attack the root cause than the signals.

As mentioned in the overcoming bias thread contrac...

2009-11-29T17:43:15.719-05:00

As mentioned in the overcoming bias thread contraception changes the status of the game.

& if it hasn't ocurred to you status goods isn't the only way males try to acquire females. Also regardless females aren't the only reasons people desire status goods.

One can easily argue females when looking for a long term partner will ignore promiscuous males -so it isn't the problem- and look for males with resources- + often with other factors- which can still lead to monogamy combined with an excess of resources being wasted on status goods.

So what we are looking at is the Left's -which I'm not- solution is to ban luxury goods from get go.

Comments on The Faith Heuristic: Humans, Bonobos, and Ants

Hi Simon, Contraception actually heightens the ga...

As mentioned in the overcoming bias thread contrac...