You have two brothers. Brother A & brother B.
A has an IQ of 115 while B has an IQ of 85. A tends to be a “thinker” while B is more of an impulsive “doer.” A becomes an accountant. B becomes a roofer.
A saves much of his salary, finds himself a long term g/f and marries her when they are both around 30 & settled in their careers. They have one child, who they send to private schools and a private university who doesn’t have to worry about financial needs for the first 25 years. Additionally, A’s child will have a nice estate after A & his wife die because the parents saved and invested wisely. A is very happy with his life and looks forward to a comfortable retirement.
B goes from paycheck to paycheck, has two marriages and two children by each marriage. He can barely support his kids, between rent, bar-tab and child support. His children don’t have any money for college at 18 so they either work or rack up large loans. The family is generally a mess and B hasn’t even had time to think about the idea of retirement even though his back his killing him after all his years working on roofs.
Who is planning wisely? Who is making the “best” decisions? Certainly almost all of us would prefer A’s situation. But while A has one child, B has four. In ages past someone like B might not have had the means to keep even one child fed, and so not had any progeny. But in our era of plentitude (in the West) infant mortality is low. Ultimately, B may have more descendents than A.
Though A is making the “wise” proximate decisions when viewed on the individual and familial scale, it might be strange to think that B is displaying the wisdom of evolutionary ages.
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