HYPERGAMY? I think this is more of a numeric artifact produced by declining marr

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/03/puerto-rico-hypergamy-fact-of-the-day.htmlREDEFINING HYPERGAMY?

I think this is more of a numeric artifact produced by declining marriage rates, and an error in over-attribution of status to income. Women are not ENTIRELY money motivated, just as men are not ENTIRELY motivated by physical attraction.

1) Hypergamy is not synonymous with mating with alphas, only ‘the best she can get’. Or ‘better than she is used to’.

2) If male status signals are less dependent upon income, then they will be more dependent upon physical traits, relationships and behavior. In other words, men who are underemployed will find alternate means of signaling.

The eastern european and Mediterranean (PIGS) males manage to do this effectively already. So do african american males. They exaggerate masculine traits which cast higher income males as effeminate. In other words, traditional masculine traits and physicality compensate for income signals.

I don’t know why this is surprising. Males vary more than females in ability. There are always ‘unfit’ males that women must ‘marry down’ or ‘mate down’ with. Simply because without polygamy or serial marriages, some portion of women must always ‘settle’ because of the scarcity of ‘good’ men.

3) This change is occurring only in the lower classes. And only relates to marriages not mates.

4) The combined burden of unemployed and unemployable males and dependent females will have a higher impact on the state’s finances and the polity than any change in mating patterns. THis will further undermine the institution of marriage and individual accountability (as Murray suggests.)

But in essence, I think as economists we overrate income. It’s just one of the available signals. And since women and men have different reproductive strategies, and since men vary more than women in ability, it is quite possible for men to adapt without impact to traditional masculine and feminine gender concepts that are outside of the economic sphere.