Jared Diamond is full of shit. Wealth of nations is only tangentially an accident of geography—it's a result of enhanced IQ due to evolutionary pressures on those "up against it" in inhospitable regions and time periods.
There are plenty of non-cognitive cultural and institutional factors that affect national wealth. Genetically similar groups can vary significantly in terms of economic prosperity, i.e., North Korea versus South Korea today or modern-day China versus China during the Mao era.
At best national IQ is a necessary but far from sufficient criterion for economic prosperity.
Jared Diamond is full of shit. Wealth of nations is only tangentially an accident of geography—it's a result of enhanced IQ due to evolutionary pressures on those "up against it" in inhospitable regions and time periods.
There are plenty of non-cognitive cultural and institutional factors that affect national wealth. Genetically similar groups can vary significantly in terms of economic prosperity, i.e., North Korea versus South Korea today or modern-day China versus China during the Mao era.
At best national IQ is a necessary but far from sufficient criterion for economic prosperity.