If you ask a guy to borrow five bucks and he says he’s a little short himself, he might be telling the literal truth. According to The Economist:

The tallest quarter of the population earns 9-10% more than the shortest quarter, according to two recent studies. Nicola Persico and Andrew Postlewaite of the University of Pennsylvania and Dan Silverman of the University of Michigan think this is because height gives adolescents self-confidence and helps them learn valuable social skills. Anne Case and Christina Paxson of Princeton University, on the other hand, argue that people who grow to their full potential are smarter, on average. Both brains and build depend on the care and nourishment a child receives.

Height adds to income, income also adds to height. In countries languishing at a real income of $4,000 per head (in 1985 dollars), boys average less than 145cm. In places that are $6,000 a head richer, boys are 4cm taller, according to calculations by Richard Steckel of Ohio State University. Likewise, Angus Deaton of Princeton University reports that Indian men of 20 are about 1cm taller than 40-year olds, partly because the country was substantially richer when they were born. In India adults still look up to their parents. But only figuratively.

The relationship between dollars and inches is not, however, straightforward. Uganda, for example, is both poorer and taller than India, where almost half of children under five are stunted, according to United Nations figures. Americans born in the 1880s, as the country’s industrial revolution gathered pace, were both richer and shorter than their forebears.

What explains these enigmas? Height rises with prosperity, but at a diminishing rate. It traces an arc, not a straight line, as income increases.

So: “The relationship between dollars and inches is not,however, straightforward… Americans were both richer and shorter than their forebears.” Does this mean that American men need pills and other accessories as compared to europeans? Or are they richer because they no longer use see ladies of the evening?  I don’t get it!

Those theories sound reasonable. I believe anthropologists say even within recent history the average height was less than today.

It would make sense that a smaller person requires less nutrition and so weathers famine and blight easier.

The reason this does not hold true for Uganda is simple enough. There are genetic and racial variations to height. You have tall Zulus and short stout Congolese. Purely a matter of genetics, not nutrition. You have pygmies.

To add one more nutbag theory, there is the syndrome of the alpha male. Our leaders tend to be tall, middle-aged, white males, with $200 haircuts and a firm handshake.

None of that has anything to do with success excepting it plays into dominance heirarchies, which we may receive from instinctual basic animal behavior. In any group of social animals, usually the biggest and strongest one is the alpha male, the leader of the pack.

Nature is playing the odds that a stronger animal is also better nourished and thus smarter, healthier, and more able to lead the pack.

Is this a flawed paradigm ? Would Bill Gates or Steven Hawking make a better president than say, any of the present candidates ?  Would a Monroe Park wino make a better candidate ?  (nah)

Well, we now have the unique choice between a black man, a woman, or an old coot. They all think of themselves as an alpha dog, by the way, even Hillary. Not too sure what the public at large thinks of them though.

They all have $200 haircuts and a firm handshake I’m sure, and we can hope and believe some realistic and decent qualifications too, all 3 candidates. They probably would do better than either Bill Gates or Steven Hawking, although I do believe we could benefit from a little shot of advanced intelligence to our presidential gene pool.

Maybe the intelligence is already there but just overshadowed by the politics. Most certainly our world leader must know how to bowl, shoot hoops, fly a jet, and down shots. These are all essential skills for an alpha dog even as they mean squat in the greater scheme of things.

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