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Was Today’s Poverty Determined in 1000 B.C.? (yes, partially)
New York Times ^ | August 2, 2010 | CATHERINE RAMPELL

Posted on 08/02/2010 3:00:32 PM PDT by reaganaut1

The recent finding that economic success in life is largely determined by what you learned in kindergarten has proven contentious (at least among our readers). So what if I told you that economic success was instead determined by what your ancestors did more than a millennium ago?

That is one implication of a provocative new study by Diego Comin, William Easterly (known for his skepticism of foreign aid programs) and Erick Gong.

The study gathered crude information on the state of technological development in various parts of the world in 1000 B.C.; around the birth of Jesus; and in A.D. 1500. It then compared these measures to per capita income today.

As it turns out, technology in A.D. 1500 is an extraordinarily reliable predictor of wealth today. Here’s a scatter plot showing the relationship between these two measures, in which each dot represents a different country:

As Mr. Easterly writes in an accompanying blog post, “78 percent of the difference in income today between sub-Saharan Africa and Western Europe is explained by technology differences that already existed in 1500 A.D. – even BEFORE the slave trade and colonialism.”

What’s more, these differences in technological development between regions had actually appeared as far back as 1000 B.C. (Side note: The big counterexample is China, which historically outshone other countries in its adoption of advanced technologies, but then did not go through the Industrial Revolution.)

There are multiple ways to explain persistence of technological differences over multiple millenniums.

...

In this earlier paper, Mr. Sachs and his co-authors argued that geography can help determine a country’s destiny, since location and climate have significant effects on the likelihood of disease burdens, transportation costs and agricultural productivity.

(Excerpt) Read more at economix.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: bellcurve; economichistory; godsgravesglyphs; history
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To: Rebelbase

A D-8 Cat gets the job done too!


21 posted on 08/02/2010 4:04:27 PM PDT by ThirdMate
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To: FreeDeerHawk
"Doesn’t New Guinea have lots of insects that could have been used as a source of quality protein,"

Yes it does, yes they did, (and yes it is).

But do you realize how many giant termites it takes to equal one ribeye?
On the other hand, the termites are nice and crunchy.

22 posted on 08/02/2010 4:13:27 PM PDT by norton
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To: reaganaut1
This reminded me of something:

http://article.nationalreview.com/267356/in-defense-of-elitism/jonah-goldberg

About a decade ago, one of the Smithsonian museums here in Washington had an exhibit on the history of human civilization, or something along those lines. I didn't see it, but a friend of mine went and his description always stuck with me. One of the displays was a comparative timeline of different cultures. At, say, 1250 you'd see what the British, the Japanese, the Chinese, or the Arabs had come up with. The sight that really struck home for my friend was a beautiful Renaissance Italian clock, with movable gears and a stunning hand-painted face with a sun and moon alternating for AM and PM. The clock came from the 15th or 16th century, I think. But that's not really important. On the same timeline for African culture there was a wood mask with eye- and mouth-holes cut out in some "novel" way. The little explanatory card on the wall tried to make it sound, somehow, as though the handcrafted clock and the mask were similarly impressive accomplishments. To which my friend responded, roughly, "Are you high?"

I may have gotten the details a bit off here, but the substance is obviously true. Some things are better than other things. Some cultures are better than other cultures. Some things are more worth studying, celebrating, and emulating than other things. Or as the late William Henry III put it in his wonderful book, In Defense of Elitism, "It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose."


23 posted on 08/02/2010 4:16:25 PM PDT by jdege
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To: ThirdMate
Not to stray too far from the main thrust, but the BEAN BELT is located in Western TN, NE Arkansas, Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, Central Missouri ~ and from there stretches in a broadly defined area to the Colorado plains.

The biggest bean predator is called "The Colorado Bean Beatle".

It is, in fact, the only serious bean predator in that region.

You go to the tropics and subtropics and there are THOUSANDS of bean predators.

Mexico's primry cuisine is based on the use of beans. That one country purchases 90% of America's bean crop ~

It's a good deal for the Mexicans and a good deal for the American bean farmers.

24 posted on 08/02/2010 4:18:52 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: OldDeckHand
The book drew some fire from some of the vegans in the world, because it essentially says that absent quality meat & fish protein, brain development can be compromised. Like I said, it's a bit controversial.

I don't find that controversial. I guess a high protein BBQ-based diet reduces anxiety too.

25 posted on 08/02/2010 4:19:02 PM PDT by TigersEye (Greenhouse Theory is false. Totally debunked. "GH gases" is a non-sequitur.)
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To: reaganaut1
Maybe it takes a lot more brains to survive in Norway than in a warm place.

The dumb ones were all eaten by reindeer.

26 posted on 08/02/2010 4:24:19 PM PDT by MARTIAL MONK (I'm waiting for the POP!)
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To: MARTIAL MONK

... or moose.


27 posted on 08/02/2010 4:32:55 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: YankeeReb

This study ignores the influence of Christianity.

Belief in Christianity eliminates the fear of curses from shamans. Belief in a rational God allows one to believe that rational earthly behavior will have rational outcomes. The invisible monsters lurking behind every tree today are not going to steal his hope in tomorrow.

Christianity also fosters a culture of honesty. Once a person can trust his neighbor to be honest, he no longer needs as much reliance on his clan or tribe. He can reach out to outlying communities. He can make contracts that he trusts will be upheld by his neighbor and honest judges.


28 posted on 08/02/2010 4:47:46 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: wintertime

So without the Church, there could never have been a Galileo right? Heathens like Aristotle weren’t able to form rational thoughts for fear of boogeymen?


29 posted on 08/02/2010 5:52:15 PM PDT by douginthearmy
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Riodacat
Based on my study of history, wealth is positively correlated (and poverty is negatively correlated) to the degree of political, economic and religious freedom which exists in a society.

While it is true that this is the MOST conducive environment for wealth creation, freedom does not necessitate wealth nor vice-versa. You said history was your guide, so think it over historically. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were richer than any African country will EVER be. Rome was in some ways free in its early years and developed wealth during this period, but it continued to grow extremely wealthy long after freedom had been snuffed out.

31 posted on 08/02/2010 6:00:26 PM PDT by douginthearmy
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To: reaganaut1

Need to see the R-squared but it looks like a fairly strong correlation...


32 posted on 08/02/2010 6:08:36 PM PDT by APatientMan
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To: afraidfortherepublic
A lot of glittering generalities here with few specifics to back them up.

Sounds like the PC version of The Bell Curve...

33 posted on 08/02/2010 6:13:00 PM PDT by GOPJ (Asked for ZIP? Give 82224 - Lost Springs,Wy - most sparsely populated in country. Freeper:SamAdams)
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To: douginthearmy

It is impossible for me to respond to a strawman of your own creation.


34 posted on 08/02/2010 6:55:14 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: douginthearmy

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were richer than any African country will EVER be.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Huh?

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan fostered political beliefs that quickly expressed itself in military action. That military action caused the near total destruction of all the wealth of their nations...nearly every last yen and mark.


35 posted on 08/02/2010 7:02:51 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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Comment #36 Removed by Moderator

To: wintertime
Christianity also fosters a culture of honesty. Once a person can trust his neighbor to be honest, he no longer needs as much reliance on his clan or tribe. He can reach out to outlying communities. He can make contracts that he trusts will be upheld by his neighbor and honest judges.

Excellent point. The Anglo Saxon concept of property rights and rule of law grew out of Judeo-Christian beliefs. It's no accident that the most advanced countries have a Judeo Christian tradition, even if they've abandoned it in the last 100 years.

37 posted on 08/03/2010 5:50:51 AM PDT by YankeeReb
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To: douginthearmy
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were richer than any African country will EVER be. Rome was in some ways free

The countries you mentioned may have been rich (although that is debatable), but the average citizen was poor compared to what they could have been had it been a free society. Freedom includes access to education and that is the fuel which powers a free society.

38 posted on 08/03/2010 6:22:39 AM PDT by Riodacat (Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." ‹(•¿•)›)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 21twelve; 240B; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; 3AngelaD; ..

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Thanks reaganaut1.

It really is rooted in classical civilization -- which is why the leftwads work so hard to bash the products of classical civilization.

Having a history of building nation-states (generally not by holding a summit meeting and reaching a consensus) with a central authority (of various kinds) and ensuring a uniform legal code (of various kinds), domestic tranquility (of various kinds), and -- going back to the great riverine civs of very ancient times -- huge food surpluses, has been the path from way way back beyond the beginning of known literacy to right now.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

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39 posted on 08/03/2010 5:31:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created The Birth of Plenty:
How the Prosperity of
the Modern World was Created

by William Bernstein

Paperback
Audio Download


40 posted on 08/03/2010 5:33:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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