Quote: (09-11-2016 08:52 PM)rw95 Wrote:
Quote: (09-11-2016 07:38 PM)Dusty Wrote:
One need only look at conditions in every country in sub-Sahara Africa and Caribbean countries to see IQ differences are real and IQ matters.
Yes, because the Caribbean is SUCH a shithole.
It's not like there are countries in the Caribbean with majority-black populations doing better than nations in Eastern Europe and Asia in terms of average income.
The Eastern European and Southeast Asian countries you're referring to tend to have something in common, namely a recent history of communism, which encourages the lower class to rise up and overthrow/imprison/exile/kill the intellectual and economic elite.
If a nation's farmers kill all of its doctors, a la Cambodia -- yes, you're going to have some problems going forward.
If your business is run "democratically" or by government bureaucrats, rather than by an innovative and intelligent individual, like, say, an Elon Musk -- yes, it's going to be less successful on average.
Singapore is a great example of all of this in action. It's not a coincidence that the richest country in Southeast Asia is 75% Chinese. And it's not a coincidence that the country's wealth exploded after rejecting their former communist oriented system in favor of more of a free market republic, which allowed their innate strengths to flourish.
Just like in individuals, intelligence creates a slightly higher ceiling, but it means nothing without a system or ideology in place to harness it.
That's why someone with an IQ of 100 can outperform someone with an IQ of 120, and why a fairly high IQ society like China will struggle under ineffective governments but thrive in the proper environment.
Take a few million Chinese and put them in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, with the proper economic and political systems in place, and they become rich, advanced societies almost overnight.
Take a bunch of Europeans and send them to America, free them from monarchy and undue taxation, and you have one of the most successful civilizations in world history. Add some highly intelligent people from all over the world to the mix, and you're really cooking.
But infect them with Marxism and drop 50 million low IQ immigrants in their midst and they begin reverting back to the mean.
In that way, this James Watson story is actually a great analogy for IQ and society in general. When you let the mob rule of random dumb asses control the expression of your nation's geniuses, it's a recipe for disaster.