Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Hot Girl Resource Curse

Economists have long speculated about the existence of resource curses. For instance, a nation rich in a finite resource such as oil might rely too heavily on it and fail to develop other areas of its economy.

What about a hot girl resource curse? On average, we would expect hot girls to have an easier time at life while they're young. If you constantly have guys fawning over you, it's hard to make yourself buckle down and learn Chaucer or calculus. These girls have less of an incentive to study or invest in other areas of themselves, as they can go through their young lives with stuff being handed to them.

But just as Arab countries may eventually run out of oil, the hot girl's main resource--her looks--is also finite. Once her beauty fades, she may regret not having invested in other areas of herself earlier in her life.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice. I hope some day this term is coined and you are given credit for it.

Another resource curse I think could be natural athletic ability. Someone who's always been good at sports from a young age and dreams of nothing but becoming a professional athlete may not feel like it's necessary to invest in their academic knowledge.

And of course physical ability is even more finite than beauty in a way, because making use of it increases the odds that you're going to have some injury that reduces it.

Greg Finley said...

That's another good example, yes.

Of course, with either trait, there's a chance that it could set you for life (i.e., if you become a famous model or actress, or a pro athlete), but for most of these people, the advantages they enjoyed in youth will eventually fade. But that doesn't mean these advantages aren't fun while they last.