Gautam Mukunda wrote: > > Have you pointed out yet that in the United States, and, > I believe, in every other society in the world, the number > of children parents have who survive to reach adulthood > correlates very well with income? > Uh? What do you mean? As far as I know, the number of children that reach adulthood correlate _negatively_ with the income of the parents.
Alberto Monteiro That's what I thought until a few months ago, and I was very much surprised to learn that such is not the case. Within the United States, for example, the line is flat (everyone has about 2) but the correlation does exist - the wealthy have slightly more children who survive to reach the age of reproduction than do the poor. I believe (with a slightly lower degree of certainty) that this is true across all industrialized countries, although the _number_ of children is lower in almost every other industrialized country than it is in the United States. I'm not as certain about the Third World, but I believe, again, that such is the case there as well. Anecdotally the opposite is usually thought to be true, but the demographics, so far as I am aware, do not support that contention. I remember reading this - I think it was in Buss's book - but I would, of course, be interested to see if anyone has number's firmer than my memory. Gautam
