were winners once before. Their cost on the bench, or on the taxi squad, is good
insurance.
My version of Hamilton’s parasite theory patched in some of Trivers’ ideas. One was that mothers intuiting self-health and good prospects should tend to breed higher primary sex ratios and conversely. Their male offspring can then find willing mates if health carries reliable signs as Hamilton proposed. Also the investment of insurance cost by winners in maintaining losers on the bench can be interpreted as
Trivers’ reciprocal altruism to be recovered when winners now become losers later.
My discussion of grandparental investment let still more worms out of the can. It is clear that humans in advanced economies today normally live to nearly three generation lengths. I proposed that we are replenishing a total capital reserve, meaning mainly a human capital one, when recovering from hard times in the world
wars and world depression. No one really knows.
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