“In particular is the second paragraph of your comment referring to the modern world, or a typical ancestral environment, or both, or do you claim it’s universal?”
Modern America.
Calling industrial accidents and violence high risk strategies sounds very weird. It’s like saying living in poor part of the city, or being black is a “high risk strategy”—it’s not strategy, it’s society abusing some of its members, and them not being able to do much about it.
American men systematically tend to adopt jobs with higher risk of death and higher pay, and in general to trade off many other factors for pay to a greater extent than women do. Men also are much more likely to participate in violent crime.
There’s an obvious problem with this argument as the risky jobs are not the high paying ones. Correlation between risk and payoff seems to be negative, not positive. And neither does violent crime pay much.
As an particularly extreme example of both, drug dealing in States is extremely risky (death far more likely than in military in Iraq, then risk of less than lethal violence, and imprisonment) and extremely unprofitable (wages far lower than minimum wage) behaviour. [ famously described in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics ]
There is a real risk premium for jobs. Yes, high income jobs are less physically risky, but that isn’t the relevant comparison. The relevant comparison is to other low skill jobs. So, for example, lumberjacks get paid more than doormen.
I think Freakonomics supports the opposite view about risk and why low level drug dealers take it. It’s the small chance of a huge payoff that motivates them, even though most of them end up living with their mothers.
Modern America.
American men systematically tend to adopt jobs with higher risk of death and higher pay, and in general to trade off many other factors for pay to a greater extent than women do. Men also are much more likely to participate in violent crime.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109
There’s an obvious problem with this argument as the risky jobs are not the high paying ones. Correlation between risk and payoff seems to be negative, not positive. And neither does violent crime pay much.
As an particularly extreme example of both, drug dealing in States is extremely risky (death far more likely than in military in Iraq, then risk of less than lethal violence, and imprisonment) and extremely unprofitable (wages far lower than minimum wage) behaviour. [ famously described in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics ]
There is a real risk premium for jobs. Yes, high income jobs are less physically risky, but that isn’t the relevant comparison. The relevant comparison is to other low skill jobs. So, for example, lumberjacks get paid more than doormen.
I think Freakonomics supports the opposite view about risk and why low level drug dealers take it. It’s the small chance of a huge payoff that motivates them, even though most of them end up living with their mothers.