Can being thinner make you richer?

Across the developed world, the richer people are, the thinner they tend to be—but the correlation between wealth and weight holds only for women. Why? Alice Fulwood, The Economist’s Wall Street correspondent, reveals the secret economics of thinness.

[audience]

Ability to control weight demonstrates discipline that is also correlated with success in other areas.

[sreerajnair]

The "expert" in the video is completely neglecting the fact that women want to be thin MUCH more than men do. So, when they get rich, they spend more on looking better, which includes getting slimmer. On the other hand, men stop caring how they look once they have millions in the bank.

[Maybemaybexyz]

There is also a correlation with taller men being more successful then shorter men

[amilsarfraz]

More attractive people tend to get paid more. We’ve known this.

[MedEighty]

I find that, the thinner I get by eating less, the less I would have spent on food, and, as a result, the more money I would have saved. So, being thinner definitely does mean being richer in my case.

[chilipepper]

Just as the economics of height for men makes them richer

[angliccivilization]

There is also the reality that being healthy, and being thin is often part of that, leaves a person with more energy, less aches, and more dynamic.

[matthewsherwin]

I think this issue is a little more complicated than can be portrayed in a 2 minute video😭

[dsmyify]

The number of shark attacks on people increases the more people eat ice-cream.

[HessionDrasha]

Other way round, being rich gives you more time to dedicate to a healthy lifestyle, pay a chef/have top ingredients/time for the gym ect

[evolassunglasses]

It's usually healthier. We need to take care of our health far more better, particularly not over eating mass produced cr*p.

[henriknilsson]

haha felt like that was just the intro for a longer video?

[helenamcginty]

Well Ive always been thin. Healthy, fit, slim. But never been rich. In fact Ive usually just got by.

[Notgivingmyname]

Correlation does not prove causation. The Economist should know better

[kiris]

Yes, actually the podcast and this clip is a rather weak performance by The Economist. Because it is not the correlation of weight to income for women, it is actually the correlation of prettiness to income. Academics study this and they call it the "beauty premium" or in the case of men, the "height premium".

[IRosamelia]

People are just filled with prejudice. If you're an obese woman, you're less likely to be hired. No wonder being obese translates into having less money 🙄

[fabiansalazar]

The tragedy is this video going nowhere

[karlpopper]

I have 7-year Economist membership. I almost read every article you published. Recently I found your App run slowly on my old Samsung S7 phone, so I upgraded my phone to S21+. Sadly on my new S21+ phone, your Economist app cannot play and download audio and cannot load images. An error notification always pops up and tells me to try again or close. All my other apps work well on my new phone including the Economist podcast (Spotify and Google podcast). I can download any audio or movies to my phone. I have already tried all the methods I can imagine, reboot redownload, upgrade, and all the settings that may hinder your app: permissions storage... Please help me I missed your articles for weeks. Could I change my app to a legacy app or something I can do as an alternative option? I tried the legacy app or the old version of the Economist app. They all do not work! I have already tried all your recommendations above. Do not work! Problems are unsolved. Please help me. Why I can use your app on my old phone S7 Edge? Why other apps all worked well but yours? Please tell me the deep mechanism of why your app is different from others.
Just cannot download the audio. There is an Economist download in process notification but the dash run over and over and just cannot download.

[Sowar]

It would help if your chart specified whether income was for individuals or households.

[chimchim]

So we're talking about 'pretty privilege' right?