Migrations and Cultures
by Thomas Sowell · first published 1996
6mentions
2recommended by
2HN commenters
2018–2023first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Migrations and Cultures shows the persistence of cultural traits in particular racial and ethnic groups and the role these groups' relocations play in redistributing skills, knowledge, and other forms of "human capital" from where they originated to the four corners of the earth. Each ethnic group has carried forth a particular set of skills, attitudes, and lifestyles, whether settling in Russia, Brazil, Australia, or the United States. What are the effects of disseminating these patterns - both for the immigrants and for the host countries, in social as well as economic terms? Migrations and
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…people, one must either bring in a few beginners into a majority competent population, or have one subculture highly motivated to absorb and replicate the success of another. This is well covered in Migrations And Cultures: A World View by Thomas Sowell.
on “US Construction worker productivity has dropped 40% in the last 50 years” ↗If you focus on his politics especially in a right-left context that makes sense, but his work touches on many social subjects and has considerable depth. I strongly recommend his book Migrations and Cultures where he documents how migrations tend to involve whole social groups and preserve networks. His conservative confidence seems to be his weakest spot. He is fond of claiming that any attempt to help…
on “Encountering Thomas Sowell” ↗…ethnic group to have widely disparate economic success in different parts of the world. (German immigrant communities are a good example of this phenomenon.) The above is discussed in Thomas Sowell's Migrations and Cultures.
on “Sex differences in ability tilt in the right tail of cognitive abilities” ↗…provide advantages and then be transmitted to different groups. No racial or innate superiority or inferiority is needed for such an explanation. This is well corroborated by history. (See Thomas Sowell's Migrations And Cultures: A World View) An example of this is found in the German influences in Mexico, and the part of Monterrey one of my old hackerspace colleagues is from. He's quite proud of the progressive schooling he…
on “Google Moves to Address Wage Equity, and Finds It’s Underpaying Many Men” ↗The measurement of general intelligence is just about the most strongly predictive tool in Psychology. Here's some things from Thomas Sowell's Migrations and Cultures that people don't know about intelligence as measured by groups. Polish and Italian immigrant communities went from the mid-80's average IQ to over 100 over the 1st half of the 20th century. Poles had…
on “Sex differences in ability tilt in the right tail of cognitive abilities” ↗The above is discussed in Thomas Sowell's Migrations and Cultures. An overarching theme in Thomas Sowell's books: The world is ruled by human capital, that is: cultures and people's ideas of how the world is and should be. Thinkers like Jordan Peterson would add that…
on “Sex differences in ability tilt in the right tail of cognitive abilities” ↗