Romney Hasn’t Done His Homework
By JARED DIAMOND
MITT ROMNEY’S latest controversial remark, about the role of culture in explaining why some countries are rich and powerful while others are poor and weak, has attracted much comment. I was especially interested in his remark because he misrepresented my views and, in contrasting them with another scholar’s arguments, oversimplified the issue.*
Conversely, geographic advantages don’t guarantee permanent success, as
the growing difficulties in Europe and America show. We Americans fail
to provide superior education and economic incentives to much of our
population. India, China and other countries that have not been world
leaders are investing heavily in education, technology and
infrastructure. They’re offering economic opportunities to more and more
of their citizens. That’s part of the reason jobs are moving overseas.
Our geography won’t keep us rich and powerful if we can’t get a good
education, can’t afford health care and can’t count on our hard work’s
being rewarded by good jobs and rising incomes.
Mitt Romney may become our next president. Will he continue to espouse
one-factor explanations for multicausal problems, and fail to understand
history and the modern world? If so, he will preside over a declining
nation squandering its advantages of location and history.
Jared Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California,
Los Angeles, is the author of the forthcoming book “The World Until
Yesterday: What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies?”
Read it at The New York Times:
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