Why is Africa so poor while Europe and North America are so wealthy?

The Washington Post ^ | April 24, 2016 | Andrew Gelman

[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.”

[castlegreyskull]

Jewish. They have the highest IQs. Arabs are well below average.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Yeah, we remember how dumb and inferior East Germans were to West Germans. And those North Koreans are just genetically inferior to South Koreans. Russians - stupid / French - smart.

/sarc

[RedWulf]

>Why were literacy rates higher for blacks than whites in America 100+ years ago?

Got some evidence of that? Things like literacy tests wouldn't have been effective in suppressing the black vote if this was true.

>In the days of segregation, some of the highest achieving high schools in the country were poor, black, inner-city schools.

The inner city black areas didn't exist until the 60-70s public housing projects after the end of segregation. Thus your reference couldn't possibly be true.

[minnesota_bound]

Corruption. They have every corrupt politician that we have had x 100 x centuries of it. Look at the democrat party run cities. Look at Detroit, Washington DC, St Louis etc. Every core of the democrat run cities is run down.

[wardaddy]

Your posts are as nonsensical as those you champion

[null and void]

Yup, mix and average that population with a population of lower IQ and what to you get?

Hint: A country that isn’t at the top of the charts.

[az_gila]

Wish I could remember where I saw that documentary.

---

Probably it was this one that was on Nova -

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160331-viking-discovery-north-america-canada-archaeology/

It was very interesting.

[Original Lurker]

I think this is about the time government schools were implemented and made mandatory of people who brought children into this world but could not afford to educate them.

Public schools are the GREATEST threat to personal freedoms and liberties.

Ground zero are people maleficent of parental duties sending their kids to be “educated” by the government.
These people are the cancer cells in American society.

[exDemMom]

But the main cause of infectious disease is poverty and corrupt government.

Poverty and corruption are not causes, but reasons they cannot get rid of disease. It's a big feedback loop. Childhood development is stunted because of disease and malnutrition, and those intellectually stunted children grow up to be the trouble makers who perpetuate the poverty and corruption. Progress is being made in this area, but it will be a while before the effects of disease on development are eradicated.

I know this is not a complete answer as to why Africa is so backwards, but I think disease is a major contributor. As others have pointed out, the climate and abundance of food probably also contribute a lot to the lack of development in Africa.

[Hawthorn]

>> Africa is where humanity began <<

Yep, and I gotta guess that it took guts, drive and IQ to get outta the place.

Therefore, those who succeeded in leaving — along with their eventual descendants — maybe had the IQ, the personal qualities and the social traits that were more suitable to developing advanced civilizations than did the folks who stayed behind in Africa.

Survival of the fittest? Maybe so.

[Let's Roll]

Yes, thank you. I knew it had to be through ROKU but wasn’t sure of the source. It’s NOVA called “Decoding Neanderthal”.

I just watched the first few minutes and it seemed to be the same one.

[BwanaNdege]

Let’s start with sub-Saharan architecture - huts made from sticks and mud similar to what a beaver can build.

American sod houses

Saskatchewan Sod House - 1900 (colorized image)

[jch10]

It is too hot to think. Africans stayed in the shade and rested.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Lol, these people were on a frontier, an unsettled wilderness (well, settled by stone-age cultures).They weren't in the midst of where bipedal humanoids first developed.

Question, how long was it before those sod houses were accompanied by cities of wood-frame and quarried-stone buildings?

[KC Burke]

Besides harbors, Sowell points to the small amount of the continent open to navigable rivers.

[Trailerpark Badass]

And, btw, those people were descendants of those who crossed glaciers and oceans, and who had left the relative safety of a millenia-old civilization to established new outposts of civilization, through nothing but the fruits of their own effort and ingenuity.

Your pictures tell alot, just not what you intended.

[palmer]

Poverty and corruption are not causes, but reasons they cannot get rid of disease. It's a big feedback loop

Not the disease cause but the cause of their persistence. We got rid of the same diseases here like malaria and yellow fever, never mind measles, mumps and rubella which are ubiquitous there. The only thing different in Africa is some reservoirs, most of the vectors are the same. It's easy to blame "tropical" diseases when they are not in fact tropical. They are third world diseases. It's why, for example, Afghanistan has malaria and Costa Rica does not.

[BwanaNdege]

It’s called Tribes. Africa could never coalesce as a society.

Bingo! Look at what tribalism is doing to the current Republican Party and the Conservative movement.

Tribalism, corruption, absence of cold winters - Aesop's "The Ant and the Grasshopper" - (although long dry seasons and frequent drought in some parts of Africa have a similar effect).

The spread of the Gospel and its work ethic are a major factor in improving culture and standard of living, though the Far East also has made great progress.

Culture is the major impediment. I've had old Ugandans ask me, "Please, when are the British coming back". A man in Mali once told me, "What this country really needs is re-colonization!" Back in the early 1980's, a white South African friend asked one of his Black friends if prosperity would continue after the whites were gone. When told, "No", he asked why. "Because we won't have the white man's #9 boot in our backsides to motivate us to work!"

Individual Africans are capable of amazing accomplishments, even while still immersed in their village culture. I urge everyone to read William Kamkwamba's "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind."

However, the bottom line is that all of these factors do not fully explain the vast differences between Africa and the rest of the world.

Is Detroit the product of race, geography, political philosophy, "ghetto" culture, individual and systemic corruption...?

A tale of two cities: Windsor and Detroit murder rates show stark contrast

[dfwgator]

Just like Europe, South Africa, which despite it’s troubles is still head and shoulders above any other African country, is having problems with refugees coming in from the rest of the continent.