[Nonsense]

Yep, Africa's best and brightest fled to the West. We need to return them to make Africa great again. Also we have been giving away "free" food for decade. I wonder what this does to farmers trying to make a living trying to sell food.

Have you ever noticed that when we are shown the videos of starving African children, flies and all, we don't see many starving women and generally no starving men?

Nonsense-

I also noticed on MSN news the other day, an 'ethnic' woman with her young male child aged about 10, complaining that she is unable to get 'FREE' school meals for children like hers.
On the same page, was a story about the obesity epidemic in the U.K,

The thing about the woman, with her child was, both of them looked like they had won the jackpot in the cream cake department & had lost the key some while back.
Now, I don't know about you, but, in my childhood, poverty was etched on the faces of children, we never had a scintilla of expectation, yet alone 'entitlement' from the state through financial or other support, had there been,both Labour & the Tories would have put a stop to that- pronto.

[Suntzu]

It's not disturbing in itself, low average IQ is a serious problem for these societies. What's disturbing is how the idiots who harp on the IQ issue ignore the centuries of predation and simplistically reduce all the problems in these societies to low average IQ. Even if all the problems could be attributed to low average IQ, the low IQ can in large part be attributed to the predatory exploitation of these societies by colonialist powers. Colonialism not only arrested the cognitive development of the societies, it's also likely that it has driven the average IQ significantly lower than it was prior to colonization.

Do you figure the slavers caught the smart ones or the stupid one? My guess is that colonialism raised the average I.Q. of Sub-Saharan Africa over the last three or four centuries.

[Drlee]

It's not disturbing in itself, low average IQ is a serious problem for these societies. What's disturbing is how the idiots who harp on the IQ issue ignore the centuries of predation and simplistically reduce all the problems in these societies to low average IQ. Even if all the problems could be attributed to low average IQ, the low IQ can in large part be attributed to the predatory exploitation of these societies by colonialist powers. Colonialism not only arrested the cognitive development of the societies, it's also likely that it has driven the average IQ significantly lower than it was prior to colonization.

How did it do that while simultaneously raising the education level dramatically?

[Suntzu]

Colonization doesn't seem to have affected the I.Q.s of India.

[Drlee]

Equatorial Guinea has the lowest average IQ in the world. 59.

Its official language is Spanish.

Its per capita GDP (PPP) is higher than Russia, Portugal or Turkey.

[Suntzu]

Equatorial Guinea has the lowest average IQ in the world. 59.

Its official language is Spanish.

Its per capita GDP (PPP) is higher than Russia, Portugal or Turkey.

This is true. The money comes from oil. Little of it gets to the people. Life expectancy is under 50 years, only 1 in 6 has a phone. Few paved roads, five airports in the whole country. Typical African country.

[Drlee]

What is your point?

I made my point and you were kind enough to step right in it.

[Suntzu]

What is your point?

I made my point and you were kind enough to step right in it.

And I made my point. Even with lots of money, Equatorial Guinea is a third world shit hole because the average I.Q. is 59!

[Drlee]

And I made my point. Even with lots of money, Equatorial Guinea is a third world shit hole because the average I.Q. is 59!

And this is obviously untrue. That you can't see it comes as no surprise to me.

The US (average IQ 98) has the fourth worse GINI index in the developed world. Because 98?

You are blaming IQ for political oppression which is not a sign of a high IQ.

[Suntzu]

And this is obviously untrue. That you can't see it comes as no surprise to me.

The US (average IQ 98) has the fourth worse GINI index in the developed world. Because 98?

You are blaming IQ for political oppression which is not a sign of a high IQ.

In the developed world. There is no doubt there is great income inequality in the U.S. driven by our large minority population.

[Drlee]

In the developed world. There is no doubt there is great income inequality in the U.S. driven by our large minority population

What an unmitigated load of shit. Completely untrue. No surprise though. Beta males frequently blame the victims. They are looking for someone to feel superior to.

[Suntzu]

What an unmitigated load of shit. Completely untrue. No surprise though. Beta males frequently blame the victims. They are looking for someone to feel superior to.

Do you squat to pee? I don't think I would consider myself a beta male but you would be the expert in that area. You might have me beat on formal education. I have you beat every other way including I.Q.

[Drlee]

I have you beat every other way including I.Q.

There is literally a better than 99.6% chance that is wrong.

[Suntzu]

There is literally a better than 99.6% chance that is wrong.

I would say there is a 1% chance I am wrong.

[Sivad]

Glenn Loury & Louis Putterman

Glenn and Louis discuss the causes of economic inequality among nations, based on Louis’s recent book, The Good, the Bad, and the Economy.

Louis describes the different hypotheses explaining global inequality (00:18).

contrasts them with his own focus on cultural attitudes propagated across generations within ethnic groups(07:50).

Glenn wonders whether a history of conquest, colonization and enslavement and/or possible genetic differences between populations might explain some of Louis’s findings(18:47).

Can the countries left behind ever catch up(26:11)?

Glenn suggests that modern communications technology is making cultural differences across nations less relevant(28:01).

So is foreign aid a waste of money(32:29)?

And does democracy follow economic growth, or vice versa(41:21)?


Louis Putterman
Professor of Economics
Overview

Born 1952, B.A. Columbia University 1976, Ph.D. (Economics) 1980. Putterman has taught at Brown since receiving his Ph.D. He received Fulbright and other research awards to conduct research in Tanzania and in China. He has been active in Brown's Development Studies program, directing its masters program from 2000 to 2011 and its undergraduate program during 2005 to 2007. He was president of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies in 2000-2001. He has written or edited eight books and published over 100 scholarly articles in refereed journals and books. He has served as Associate Chair, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Chair of Brown's Department of Economics.

[Suntzu]

The ability to succeed is passed on in ethnic groups over hundreds or even thousands of years but it can't be genetic. Got it!

[Godstud]

Racist bullshit aside, Africa's not a nation. As Igor mentioned on the first page, the term "third world" means very little.

[Sivad]

The ability to succeed is passed on in ethnic groups over hundreds or even thousands of years but it can't be genetic. Got it!

We know it's not entirely genetic because the professor just provided a number of perfectly plausible alternative explanations. But even if it was entirely genetic the problem would be one of distribution rather than lack of advantageous traits. Europeans had millennia to develop a middle class which distributed traits like higher IQ and lower aggression more widely throughout the population, most ethnic groups possess all those same traits but because of some flukes of geography those traits aren't as common within some groups.

[Suntzu]

I agree, it is not entirely genetic, only around 68%.

[Drlee]

The effect of IQ on success in anything, particularly when looking at distribution throughout a population, is beyond complicated. It defies a direct correlation in large populations not to mention anything like a specific causation.

The work on IQ seeks to understand the effects of being gifted or below normal but says little about average IQs within a population. There are few things that people in the gifted category do not do better/easier but there are some that they do more poorly than their less gifted compatriots. Nevertheless, the effect that these gifted people as well as the below average people have on a population depends greatly on the challenges faced by the population in general. In other words, life in an industrialized modern society gives opportunity to gifted people that life in a mostly agrarian society does not.

This whole thread presupposes that "we" ought to be concerned that Africa is not moving toward industrialization as quickly as other places. I assert that we should not. I believe that it is possible to be quite happy in Africa today even in tribal societies that are nearly stone age. Sure we (the other world) could help with the despotism and oppression in which some of these governments are engaged but to assume that the world would be better off if every villager had a laptop is simple arrogance.

So is Africa 'doomed' to move toward a more "advanced" society? Probably. But it is a shame in many ways. My belief is that we should try to protect Africa's cultural heritage with the same ardor that many of the right wing folks in this thread would try to protect their own. Sadly China appears to disagree and at the end of the day it will be their call.