02-07-2012, 07:46 AM
Magda and Peter.
During WWII we had a saying about Hitler's Master Race:
"Blond like Hitler; tall like Goebbels; slim like Goering."
Those were the ideals of the Aryan race.
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On a different note, inbreeding tends to produce genetic variations and health problems. Using the European royalty of the 19th Century as an example of inbreeding; they would only marry into each other's families. Queen Victoria of Great Britain carried the genes (or lack of genes) to produce descendants who had hemophilia (inability of the blood to clot).
The smaller the population pool that is inter-marrying and reproducing, the greater the chances are for high probabilities of malfunctioning genetic conditions. Tay-Sachs Disease, for example, amongst an isolated group of religious Jews who do not marry outside of their religion, is another example. There are many more examples like this, which brings me to the point I'd like to make.
For many years in the United States, wealth has been accumulated by a small number of families - 60 families, some say, or more. One percent of our population of appoximaely 3 million people is 300,000 wealthy people, approximately. Not all are currently of reproductive age as some are too young and some are too old and some are not interested, shall I say? That whittles down the reproductive number quite a bit. I don't have any statistics, but maybe around 200,000 or 250,000? It is true that some of these wealthy people (male?) could marry outside of their class, but it is more likely that these marriages would be more like corporation mergers than love matches. At any rate, the process would be repeated in the next generation as it had been in the generations before. In this country since, say, roughly 1600 to 2000, or about 400 years, there would be 16 generations. It should not take too long for some genetic disturbances to begin to show up. Of course abortions could prevent live births from happening, and all this information would not be available to medical statisticians because the wealthy would cover such things up. But it would be an interesting study for some sociologist to do upon the basis of genetically tranmitted health conditions. One could easily weed out nutritional deficiencies (which would be found in the poor) and any other causes of disease conditions (sanitation, for example) that could be factors with lower class people. For all I know, maybe such studies already exist....???? Just a thought.
Adele
During WWII we had a saying about Hitler's Master Race:
"Blond like Hitler; tall like Goebbels; slim like Goering."
Those were the ideals of the Aryan race.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a different note, inbreeding tends to produce genetic variations and health problems. Using the European royalty of the 19th Century as an example of inbreeding; they would only marry into each other's families. Queen Victoria of Great Britain carried the genes (or lack of genes) to produce descendants who had hemophilia (inability of the blood to clot).
The smaller the population pool that is inter-marrying and reproducing, the greater the chances are for high probabilities of malfunctioning genetic conditions. Tay-Sachs Disease, for example, amongst an isolated group of religious Jews who do not marry outside of their religion, is another example. There are many more examples like this, which brings me to the point I'd like to make.
For many years in the United States, wealth has been accumulated by a small number of families - 60 families, some say, or more. One percent of our population of appoximaely 3 million people is 300,000 wealthy people, approximately. Not all are currently of reproductive age as some are too young and some are too old and some are not interested, shall I say? That whittles down the reproductive number quite a bit. I don't have any statistics, but maybe around 200,000 or 250,000? It is true that some of these wealthy people (male?) could marry outside of their class, but it is more likely that these marriages would be more like corporation mergers than love matches. At any rate, the process would be repeated in the next generation as it had been in the generations before. In this country since, say, roughly 1600 to 2000, or about 400 years, there would be 16 generations. It should not take too long for some genetic disturbances to begin to show up. Of course abortions could prevent live births from happening, and all this information would not be available to medical statisticians because the wealthy would cover such things up. But it would be an interesting study for some sociologist to do upon the basis of genetically tranmitted health conditions. One could easily weed out nutritional deficiencies (which would be found in the poor) and any other causes of disease conditions (sanitation, for example) that could be factors with lower class people. For all I know, maybe such studies already exist....???? Just a thought.
Adele