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Why is Africa so poor while Europe and North America are so wealthy?
The Washington Post ^ | April 24, 2016 | Andrew Gelman

Posted on 04/24/2016 9:05:52 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican

A few years ago, two economics professors, Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor, published a paper, “The Out of Africa Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development,” that drew inferences about poverty and genetics based on a statistical pattern.

The world’s most genetically diverse countries (using their measure of what counts as genetically diverse) are in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the world’s poorest region. The least genetically diverse countries are in places like Bolivia, which have low incomes but not as low as in that region of Africa. There’s an intermediate level of genetic diversity among the residents of the middle-income and rich countries in Asia, Europe and North America.

Genetic diversity arises from migratory distance of populations from East Africa. Countries in east Africa have the highest genetic diversity because this is where humans evolved. Populations that settled in other parts of the world descend from various subgroups of people who left Africa at different times. Thus, these groups are less varied in their genetic profiles.

Ashraf and Galor put this together and argued that this is “reflecting the trade-off between the beneficial and the detrimental effects of diversity on productivity.” Their argument was that a little bit of genetic diversity is a good thing because “a wider spectrum of traits is more likely to be complementary to the development and successful implementation of advanced technological paradigms,” but if a country is too genetically diverse, its economy will suffer from “reduced cooperation and efficiency.” Thus, they wrote, “the high degree of diversity among African populations and the low degree of diversity among Native American populations have been a detrimental force in the development of those regions.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: christianity
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To: MinorityRepublican
Also we invent a lot of stuff.

Take this baking soda and vinegar cannon. However Obama wants to ban it even though our Second Amendment protects our right.

See link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNY63AYdIYY

61 posted on 04/24/2016 9:37:59 AM PDT by ShivaFan
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62 posted on 04/24/2016 9:38:02 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Hey Ted, why are you taking one for the RNC/GOPe team, and not ours? Not that we don't know.)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Why is Africa so poor while Europe and North America are so wealthy?

The Bell Curve.

63 posted on 04/24/2016 9:39:00 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: dogcaller
Certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with the rule of law and private property protections that rose out of the Judeo-Christian foundation in the West.

Africa today has some of the most Christian nations on Earth.

Liberia is #1 and is all Protestant

So nope

64 posted on 04/24/2016 9:39:18 AM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra

Shhhh....we can’t say that though!

Notice Haiti. Oldest “African Republic” with an IQ in the 50’s.


65 posted on 04/24/2016 9:40:01 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
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To: Reeses

Also people that evolve where there’s a winter have to plan, learn how to eat in winter. Those where there is no winter are weeded out by the climate.


66 posted on 04/24/2016 9:40:04 AM PDT by Let's Roll ("You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality" -- Ayn Rand)
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Comment #67 Removed by Moderator

To: MinorityRepublican

What about Japan and South Korea?


68 posted on 04/24/2016 9:42:50 AM PDT by Tours
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To: Safetgiver

Walter Williams. Sorry.


69 posted on 04/24/2016 9:43:17 AM PDT by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

The answer is clear as a bell. Average racial I.Q.


70 posted on 04/24/2016 9:43:22 AM PDT by Tours
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To: Aria
Although...the Eskimos haven’t had the most advanced civilization either.

So much time and effort has to spent on simply surviving in arctic conditions, it's not surprising.

71 posted on 04/24/2016 9:43:54 AM PDT by JimRed (Is it 1776 yet? TERM LIMITS, now and forever! Build the Wall, NOW!)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Indians and Inuits had not been in those cold climates long enough?


72 posted on 04/24/2016 9:44:08 AM PDT by Let's Roll ("You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality" -- Ayn Rand)
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To: MinorityRepublican
There was an old Africa hand on FR who told a story of a rope swing.

He put up a tire swing in this little village.

It was a HUGE hit with the kids, they absolutely loved it!

It got a lot of use while he was there, not only did the kids enjoy it, but the adults enjoyed pushing their kids on it.

Then he left the area for a while (6 months? a year?). He was looking forward to returning and seeing the kids play on the swing he put up.

When he got back, no swing. The tire was laying on the ground, with the rope piled in and around it.

It seems the rope came loose shortly after he left, and NONE of the natives had the gumption to put it back up!

That's why Africa is poor...

73 posted on 04/24/2016 9:44:15 AM PDT by null and void ("when authority began inspiring contempt, it had stopped being authority" ~ H. Beam Piper)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Africa is just fine.

There are parts of it that suck, but there are also parts that are doing very well in terms of modernization and growth.

Like Estonia, Communism (And in Africa’s case tyrants) are leaving and capitalism is coming.

It’s the US that has fallen further than Africa. Cameras to watch us, civil wars about to ignite, a leadership that is just as tyrannical as Mugabe.

These observations just haven’t really kicked off yet.


74 posted on 04/24/2016 9:45:39 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: MinorityRepublican

As I see it, two primary issues.

No written language.
Africa never developed one that caught on. No printing press, no linguistic or literary tradition.

Tribalism.
Africa is still tribal. Winning an election just means it is your tribe’s turn to loot.

These things prevent national and culturaly unity, which is required to enjoy some degree of prosperity.


75 posted on 04/24/2016 9:47:10 AM PDT by Little Ray (NOTHING THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS TO PAY FOR IS A RIGHT.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Why has Africa hardly made any contributions to mankind that others want, while Europe and the Umited States have made so many innovations and inventions that just about everyone else wants?

Reject this pc history guilt bs. This is the stupid sh1t that people,need to get over. It is also lies. Plenty,of whites have struggled and failed. Plenty have taken their whole lives to build up a decent life for the next generation. There was no modern welfare state back then, most of europe was poor too. Died from disease and poor sanitation and epidemics.

This whole idea that bad things in life dont touch whites is institutionalizing racism in blacks and others and alsoinstituting covetousness. Which leads to theft, violence and murder.


76 posted on 04/24/2016 9:47:36 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

God —> liberty —> property —> pursuit of happiness


77 posted on 04/24/2016 9:47:58 AM PDT by XEHRpa
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To: arl295
Africa is rich in natural resources but the corrupt few partake in the wealth

There was a South American economist a few years ago who published a paper in which he said the primary reason lie in a country's degree of protection of personal property rights.

78 posted on 04/24/2016 9:50:05 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (The GOPe deserve nothing more than a middle finger)
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To: Salgak

Now that will violate some snowflakes’ safe spaces. :)

Real life tends to do that, though.


79 posted on 04/24/2016 9:54:31 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: gaijin

Egyptian civilization is one of the oldest in the world - but that area had contact with the Middle East and Europe’s Mediterranean cultures, so it can be seen as a hybrid of African with other cultures.


80 posted on 04/24/2016 10:02:24 AM PDT by tbw2
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