On: Brown economists: Ancestral history explains roots of income inequality

[gaius]

Singapore would disprove that theory.

[cambellg → gaius]

What aspect of Singapore's history gives lie to the theory that a tribe w/ portable resources will recirculate those resources within itself as it expands globally?

[gaius → cambellg]

Singapore had no resources other than the brains of its people; they were the underclass who were booted out of Malaysia with just the shirts on their backs.

[cambellg → gaius]

Ok... then they were colonized by a wealthy tribe. Where's the dichotomy?

[gaius → cambellg]

They became the wealthy tribe once they were free of the mainstream Malaysian class system.

[DabAsteroid → gaius]

They became the wealthy tribe once they were free of the mainstream Malaysian class system.

Malays have little to do with Singapore's economy.

[DabAsteroid → gaius]

Singapore had no resources other than the brains of its people; they were the underclass who were booted out of Malaysia

Han Chinese are not Malays. From Appendix 1 of "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" by Lynn & Vanhanen (p218):

Singapore

In 1974, data for a representative sample of 147 ethnic Chinese and 190 ethnic Malay 13-year-olds for the Standard Progressive Matrices were collected (Lynn, 1976). In relation to the British 1979 standardization sample, the Chinese obtained a mean IQ of 106 and the Malays a mean IQ of 90.5. ... The population of Singapore is 76 percent Chinese, 14 percent Malay, and 7 percent Indian