Geography as Destiny

GEOGRAPHY AS DESTINY
Julian O'Dea PhD

Steve Sailer seems to be arguing that it is the people not the geography that has kept Mexico poor.

I have always felt that Mexico has one feature that might become very important in time. Fabulous natural assets. Not so much as in Great Plains type assets that the US has, able to feed massive numbers of people on wheat. But rather huge natural diversity of species of animals and plants, which is probably not even fully explored.

Mexico also has something the US doesn't. Lot of Indians still. There is an embarrassing historical reason why the US is a bit short on Indians these days. There was a time when this didn't matter, because who cares about history's losers? But people simply care more about that kind of detail these days.

The other things Mexico has going for it are machismo and Catholicism. Both are no doubt not what they were, but their lingering effect will probably help Mexico and the Mexicans win the "battle of the cradle". Much as I admire America's WASPs, their women, in the words of the popular postcard gag, "forgot to have children".



Within the United States itself, Hispanics are reproducing themselves better than most other ethnic groups.

I wrote previously on the the link between warm climate and "lazy" Catholics here. Basically I am arguing that hot climates like Mexico are not conducive to a strong work ethic. As I point out at my earlier post, religion may not be an important factor. For example, although Protestants in New England have been productive, their cousins in the southern United States are famous for their more relaxed, less productive lifeways.

Another point of view. The author argues that Mexico was doing well until an anti-Catholic government intervened:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Drenched-Altars-Francis-Clement-Kelley/dp/0895553198

I have had a surprising amount of trouble finding good indications of just how hot Mexico is compared with the USA and Canada. This map is not too bad, albeit it is designed for rose growers. However, I have always been happy to get my data where I can:



I am not sure this is quite what I need either, but it does indicate that Mexico is a place that never gets very cold. Cold weather is sometimes said to require humans to respond with a lot of applied intelligence.

In Aesop's fable, the grasshopper dies in winter. But he would have survived if there had been no winter …

(That map of annual minimum temperatures is quite surprising to an Australian. I live in Canberra, the Australian capital, notoriously a cold place. But only by Australian standards it seems. The coldest night in Canberra probably reaches about -6 degrees Celsius in any year. That is roughly 20 degrees Fahrenheit. If I am reading that map of North America and Mexico properly, that puts even Canberra on a par with places like southern Alabama in terms of annual minimum temperatures. That said, I suspect we feel pretty cold here in Canberra, simply because Australians in general are not expert at dealing with cold weather. We don't have the best clothing and houses and habits for dealing with even moderately cold weather, especially when it is only very seasonal. And even Canberra gets hot in summer. We had a 107 degrees Fahrenheit maximum on one day last summer.)