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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: PiMac who wrote (33258)3/24/1999 5:26:00 AM
From: nihil  Read Replies (2) of 108807
 
Wealth and income are log-normal -- even in socialist countries -- the long-tail to the right, and all elements positive (thanks to bankruptcy).
Your concern about survival of the unfit is the old concern of eugenicists (and statisticians) who were concerned about human degeneration. As far as IQ goes, the problem is that IQ increases secularly and has to be rebased from time to time. Despite what many people consider dysgenic overreproduction of the low IQ'd, no one has succeeded in measuring this supposed degeneration effect.
Your belief (stretching of the curves) asserts the variance of the trait is becoming larger over time. This may be very true, but a temporary phenomenon.
Imagine two equal populations with mean adult height 125 cm (and low childhood protein intake) and 150 cm (with high protein intake). The variance of height in the combined population might increase with increase in protein for the shorter population, but eventually it would become much smaller if protein uptake were equalized. Young japanese are much taller (frighteningly so I'm told) than their grandparents (on average) but still not as tall as young Nilotic blacks (e.g. Dinka). Overall, however, human height variance among men and among women is probably decreasing with improved nutrition (although the Dinkas are not eating well right now).
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