IQ And GDP

Here's a thought-provoker:

As a rough rule of thumb, an increase of 10 points in mean IQ results in a doubling of the per capita [Gross Domestic Product].

That's the conclusion of the authors of the article "Exponential correlation of IQ and the wealth of nations" in the journal Intelligence. Think of it! Increase a nation's IQ from just 90 to 100, and expect a doubling of its wealth.

The full abstract (you need to subscribe to read the entire article) is too complex by half for an ilnumerate like me:

Plots of mean IQ and per capita real Gross Domestic Product for groups of 81 and 185 nations, as collected by Lynn and Vanhanen, are best fitted by an exponential function of the form: GDP = a * 10^b*(IQ), where a and b are empirical constants. Exponential fitting yields markedly higher correlation coefficients than either linear or quadratic. The implication of exponential fitting is that a given increment in IQ, anywhere along the IQ scale, results in a given percentage in GDP, rather than a given dollar increase as linear fitting would predict. As a rough rule of thumb, an increase of 10 points in mean IQ results in a doubling of the per capita GDP.

But the gist of it is this: Smart nations do better.

America is smart, but as Alvin Toffler explained recently in an interview with Dennis Prager, we're smart in an early industrial revolution sort of way, training our kids to be good factory workers in factories that no longer exist. Add Lynn and Vanhanen's equation to the long list of reasons why we must throw the rulers of our education system out and start over.

Islamic theocracies, on the other hand, are dumb and work hard to stay dumb. They only educate half their children, leaving the girls out, and the indoctrinate the boys with numbing Koranic teaching rather than inspire them to think. It has been so for so long that their economies are fiscal cesspools, relieved only by petrodollars in those nations lucky enough to sit over petro-pools.

Many Libs say we have to help the Muslim nations address their grievances regarding their sucky economies if we are to have peace. They don't say it that way; it's all income disparity and imperialism and captialist greed in Lib-lingo. But it boils down to having poorly educated people living in societies that repress imagination.

How can the Libs lobby for addressing Muslim grievances while at the same time lobbying to repress our own imaginations by declaring off limits so many interesting topics, like religion, creation, morality and even the war (as evidenced by recent school bans on camo or USMC clothing)?

hat-tip: Dissecting Leftism
photo: BBC
Related Tags: Education, Schools, GDP, IQ, Theocracy, Liberalism, Toffler, Islamist, Capitalist