In free market societies, each individual has a sexual market value that influences his or her success rate. Positive attributes include attractive appearance, youth, wealth, skill, and status.
Attractive appearance and youth are more important in comparatively rich societies where basic economic needs are easily met. In poor societies, wealth is more important in determining sexual market value. In traditional societies, it may be caste.
Kreutzian ideology advocates poor societies. In poor societies, anyone with adequate intellectual capabilities has a lifelong chance to raise his or her sexual market value by becoming richer.
In rich societies, individual wealth is less important, and sexual market value depends more on factors like physical appearance and youth. Cosmetic procedures afford a certain amount of redress against the decline of physical attractiveness, but they do not go very far with current technology. For those with superior intellectual capacities, this falls far short of allowing them to determine their sexual market value through wealth.
The fact that, in rich societies, older men with superior intellects often have a lower sexual market value than less intelligent young men does not bode well for the future of these societies.