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Re: Bell-curve racism for nations by C. Bandhauer 07 March 2002 17:59 UTC |
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Of course these studies have been proven problematic over and over again. As such I sometimes think they just keep publishing this junk so that the rest of us have extremist views to cite in our writing and teaching. But then I actually had an occasion to witness Jared Taylor, another likeminded extremist such as Rushton (who has published with Rushton), at a conference recently and he seemed to be the real McCoy - he lived and breathed his belief of biological 'race' inequities - eerily so I might add. What I have found in my own research on the right-wing is that these people do have considerable followings, including a lot of people who have never donned a white robe and hood, or burned a cross, etc., nor would they dream of doing so. For example, in my interviews with anti-immigrant organizers, several cited Charles Murray's work. Those I interviewed often seemed to have read themselves into a corner of right-wing extremist literature and had zero knowledge of, or tolerance for anything to the contrary. Taylor & I believe Rushton's arguments are that they aren't "white" supremacist at all, that if anything they are "Asian" supremacist. Great.... Sigh, ************************************** Carina A. Bandhauer, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Social Sciences Western Connecticut State University 181 White Street Danbury, CT 06810 ************************************** on 3/7/02 9:25 AM, Louis Proyect at lnp3@panix.com wrote: > (I received this from John Landon, a Marxism list subscriber who ran into > it on the evo-psych mailing list, an influential forum with thousands of > subscribers. Phillipe Rushton is a well-known racist who has appeared on > platforms with the ultra right-wing National Party in Great Britain. What's > next? Academic articles and books arguing for eugenics?) > > The Intelligence Of Nations > > A review > By Philippe Rushton > > IQ and the Wealth of Nations. Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, Westport, CT: > Praeger (2002), 256 pp., U.S. $64.95 (Hdbk.) ISBN 0-275-97510-X (Available > from amazon.com) > > IQ and the Wealth of Nations. is a brilliantly-conceived, superbly-written, > path-breaking book that does for the global study of economic prosperity > what The Bell Curve did for the USA. Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen examine > IQ scores and economic indicators in 185 countries. They document that > national differences in wealth are explained most importantly by the > intelligence levels of the populations. They calculate that mean national > IQ correlates powerfully--more than 0.7--with per capita Gross Domestic > Product (GDP). National IQs predict both long-term and short term economic > growth rates. Second in importance is whether the countries have market or > socialist economies. Only third is the widely-credited factor of natural > resources, like oil. > > One arresting fact emerges: the average national IQ of the world is only > 90. Fewer than one in five countries have IQs equal or near the British > average of 100. Almost half have IQs of 90 or less. This poses a serious > problem if the book's conclusion that IQ = 90 forms the threshold for a > technological economy is correct. > > Lynn and Vanhanen review the theories advanced over the last 250 years to > explain why some countries are rich while others are poor. These include: > climate theories (temperate zones are said to be best); geographic theories > (an East-West Axis is said to be best); modernization theories > (urbanization and division of labor are said to be good); dependency > theories (exploitation and peripheralization of poor nations are said to be > bad); neoliberal theories (market economies are said to be good); > psychological theories (cultural values like thriftiness, the Protestant > Ethic, and motivation for achievement are said to be good). Some of these > factors no doubt play a role. But it turns out that IQ that does the heavy > lifting. > > Next, Lynn and Vanhanen review the scientific literature and find that IQ > is an important determinant of educational attainment, earnings, economic > success, etc. In the United States and Britain, the correlation between IQ > and earnings for individuals is approximately 0.35. (That is, cleverness is > a fairly loose guarantee of economic success for an individual, but is > significant across an entire population. If you bet on it at a gaming table > you wouldn't win on every throw, but you would make a lot of money over an > evening.) Of course, it makes sense that intelligence determines earnings. > More intelligent people learn more quickly, solve problems more > effectively, can be trained to acquire more complex skills, and work more > productively and efficiently. > > Nations whose people have high IQ levels also have high educational > attainment and large numbers of individuals who make significant > contributions to national life. On the flipside, nations with low levels of > intelligence have low levels of educational attainment and few individuals > who make significant contributions. Low intelligence leads to unfavorable > social outcomes like crime, unemployment, welfare dependency, and single > motherhood. > > Lynn and Vanhanen prove that the widespread though rarely stated assumption > of economists and political scientists--that all peoples and nations have > the same average IQ--is wildly wrong. Their evidence documents substantial > national differences in average intelligence. The highest average IQs are > found among the Oriental countries of North East Asia (average IQ = 104), > followed by the European nations (average IQ = 98), and the mainly White > populations of North America and Australasia (average IQ = 98). Further > behind are the countries of South and Southwest Asia, from the Middle East > through Turkey to India and Malaysia (average IQ = 87), as are the > countries of South East Asia and the Pacific Islands (average IQ = 86), and > Latin America and the Caribbean (IQ = 85). Lowest are the countries of > Africa (average IQ = 70). > > Lynn and Vanhanen find that some countries do have higher or lower per > capita incomes than their national IQ averages would predict. This is where > having a market or socialist economy or sitting atop a sea of crude oil > comes in. > > Some of the countries with a higher per capita income than would be > predicted from their average IQs are Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, > Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, > Switzerland, and the U.S. Except for Qatar, South Africa, and Barbados, all > of these are technologically highly developed market economies. Qatar's > exceptionally high per capita income comes from oil exporting, which is > actually managed and controlled by corporations and people from European > and North American countries. South Africa's much higher than expected per > capita income derives from the high performance of the industries > established and managed by the country's European minority. Similarly, > Barbados's above average wealth comes from its well-established tourist > industry and financial services, which are owned, controlled and managed by > American and European countries. > > Some of the countries with lower per capita income than would be predicted > from their average IQ: Bulgaria, China, Hungary, Iraq, South Korea, the > Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Thailand, and Uruguay. Most of these > are present or former socialist countries. Iraq has suffered from losing > the Gulf War and a decade of UN trade sanctions. The large amount of ethnic > conflict in the Philippines decreased growth. > > Lynn and Vanhanen provide a detailed examination how well IQ theory stacks > up against its competitors. For example, two significant exceptions to the > view that a tropical climate is detrimental to wealth are Singapore and > Hong Kong, which lie in the tropical zone but are rich. Conversely, Lesotho > and Swaziland are temperate, lying slightly south of the Tropic of > Capricorn, but poor. These differences, however, can be explained in terms > of intelligence theory. The people of Singapore and Hong Kong belong to the > ethnic group with the highest average IQs; the people of Lesotho and > Swaziland belong to the ethnic group with the lowest. > > Modernization theories, according to which all economies would evolve from > subsistence agriculture through to various stages of urbanization and > industrialization, have worked for Western Europe and the Pacific Rim but > have failed for the four remaining groups of nations (South Asia, the > Pacific Islands, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa). IQ and the Wealth > of Nations proposes that modernization theories describe Western Europe and > the Pacific Rim because these countries have appreciably the same or > somewhat higher IQs than in the United States. But they did not work for > the other four groups of countries because average IQs are below the > technological threshold. > > But why did the peoples of East Asia, with their high IQs, lag behind the > European peoples until the second half of the 20th Century? Well, China's > science and technology were generally more advanced than Europe's for > around two thousand years, from about 500 B.C. up to around 1500 A.D. But > in the 15th century, Chinese inventiveness came to an end and from that > time on virtually all the important advances were made by Europeans, first > in Europe and later in the U.S. The explanation may be that Europeans > developed the market economy, while China stagnated through authoritarian > bureaucracy and central planning. > > The failure of Japan to develop economically until the late 19th century is > largely attributed to a regulated economy and isolation from the rest of > the world. By 1867-68 a revolution occurred and the new rulers embarked on > a program to modernize Japan by adopting Western education and technology, > and by freeing up the economy by transforming state monopolies into private > corporations. Much of the Japanese economic success in the 20th century was > built by adopting inventions made in the West, improving them, and selling > them more competitively in world markets. Japan thereby built up its > motorcycle, automobile, shipbuilding, and electronics industries. Although > it is sometimes asserted that the Japanese have not made any significant > scientific and technological innovations of their own, this underestimates > their technological achievements: the fiber-tipped pen (1960), bullet > trains traveling at 210 km per hour, much faster than any Western trains > (1964), laser radar (1966), quartz watches (1967), VHS video home systems > (1976), flat screen televisions using liquid crystal display (1979), video > discs (1980), CD-ROM (read only memory) disks (1985), digital audio tape > (1987), and digital networks for sending signals along coaxial cables and > optical fibers (1988). > > African countries are at the opposite pole from China and Japan in national > IQ. This may explain why they are such a major anomaly for modernization > theory. The low rate of economic growth of African countries following > their independence from colonial rule in the 1960s is one of the major > problems in developmental economics. During the years 1976-98, the average > rate of economic growth per capita GNP of the 41 countries of sub-Saharan > Africa for which data are available is much lower than in the rest of the > world. Many of the African countries actually suffered negative per capita > growth rate. Economists have quantified all possible factors, such as > climate, ethnic diversity, geography, mismanagement, unemployment and the > like, and compared the situation to elsewhere in the world, especially > Asia. They concluded that these factors do not provide a complete > explanation and that there is some "missing element." Some have suggested > the low level of "social capital," i.e., the widespread corruption and lack > of trust in commercial relationships, poor roads and railways, unreliable > telephones and electricity supplies, and the prevalence of tropical > diseases such as malaria. > > IQ and the Wealth of Nations identifies IQ as the missing link. Some of > these "social capital" are actually manifestations of a low level of > intelligence in the populations. Poor telephone services and electricity > supplies, low agricultural yields, and the poor advice given by government > advisory boards reflect low average IQ. With a mean IQ of 70, the > populations of Africa cannot be expected to match the rates of economic > growth achieved elsewhere in the world. > > Finally, Lynn and Vanhanen peer into the future. They predict future growth > is most likely in countries with high national IQ scores but currently bad > economic systems. The countries of the former Communist Bloc--Russia, > Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania, and the People's Republic of China, and > Vietnam--are good bets. > > What else can be done? Lynn and Vanhanen also list some of the factors, > some environmental and some genetic, that might raise IQ scores and > somewhat alleviate the disparities in national average IQ. These include: > better nutrition, education and health; and ending the dysgenic fertility > trends where the lowest IQ people produce the most children. (Obviously, > immigration policy has a role to play too.) > > The take-home message of IQ and the Wealth of Nations: national differences > in IQ are here to stay and so is the gap between the rich and the poor > countries. Political promises that the gap is temporary, and will be > remedied by aid from rich countries to poor countries, or even by poor > countries adopting appropriate institutions, will not be fulfilled. Such > promises assume that all human populations have equal mental abilities to > adopt modern technologies and to achieve equal levels of economic > development. They do not. The authors sound a clarion call for the > recognition of national and race differences in intelligence. > > Adapted from: > > The Bigger Bell Curve: Intelligence, National Achievement, and The Global > Economy, 22 October 2001, (PDF version) in Elsevier Science journal > Personality and Individual Differences) > > Philippe Rushton is a professor of psychology at the University of Western > Ontario and the author of Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History > Perspective > > > Louis Proyect > Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org > >
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