The Improvident Races
By • 1/2/08 |
Hispanics in the barrio. |
As we saw in The Reality of Racial Differences, there are large, and almost certainly innate, differences between whites and blacks in intelligence and ability to defer gratification. Hispanics, America’s largest minority group, are much more similar to blacks than whites in these traits. Consequently, with the increasing size of the Hispanic population, America has every reason to expect higher rates of social failure, the inevitable consequence of low intelligence and low ability to defer gratification.
“Ability to defer gratification” is a bit of a mouthful. Social scientists use the more compact term “time preferences” to designate this attribute. People with little ability to defer gratification have high time preferences; those with more have lower time preferences. An even more compact, but less scientific term, is “provident,” which means “having or showing foresight; providing carefully for the future.” Since blacks and Hispanics are less likely to do these things than whites, we can refer to them as improvident races.
Hispanics are, of course, not a race, but a linguistic group; however, most of them do differ racially from whites. Sixty-six percent of Hispanics in the United States are from Mexico and another 17 percent from some other Central and South American nation. The large majority of the population of the nations in which most Hispanic immigrants originate is either Indian or mestizo, a mixture of white and Indian blood. Puerto Ricans, who make up nine percent of the Hispanic population are mostly mulatto, or a mixture of white and black. The characteristics of the Hispanic population thus reflect their Indian and black genetic heritage.
The average IQ in the mestizo and Indian-dominated countries of Latin America is about 86 versus the average white IQ of 99 and the average black IQ of 85. The average IQ of Puerto Ricans is 84, and that of American Hispanics, 89.1 Hispanics are thus marginally more intelligent than blacks, but substantially less intelligent than whites. Such large differences in intelligence are certainly in part due to genetic differences.
One consequence of low IQs is low educational attainment. Hispanic high school completion rates are lower than those of any other major racial/ethnic group in the country: 52 percent of Hispanics complete high school, against 78 percent of whites and 58 percent of blacks.2
Furthermore, even Hispanics whose families have been in the US for three generations or more are less likely than any other group to graduate from high school.3 The chart below shows how many times more likely than whites various groups are to drop out of high school, with the white bar set at one for the sake of comparison. Blacks are about 1.7 times more likely to be dropouts than whites and Hispanics about 3.7 times more likely. “First generation Hispanic” refers to American Hispanics who were born abroad, “second generation” to Hispanics whose parents were born in the US but whose grandparents were not, and “third generation+” to Hispanics whose grandparents were US-born. Even this last group is about twice as likely as whites not to complete high school; in fact, third-generation Hispanics are more likely than blacks to be high school dropouts.4
Such large differences in high school completion rates even among Hispanics whose families have been in the US for three generations or more suggest that it is unlikely that Hispanics will ever assimilate into American society.
Even those Hispanics who do stay in high school until the 12th grade do substantially worse on tests than whites. The chart below shows average scores for 12th graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math test. Scores on the NAEP verbal test show a similar pattern, with whites doing best by a wide margin and Hispanics doing slightly better than blacks.5
This deficit continues for college education. Hispanics are less likely to graduate from college than blacks and only about a third as likely as whites. Hispanics whose families have been in America three generations or more are only slightly more likely to graduate from college than the foreign-born.6
Their low educational attainment reflects not merely blacks’ and Hispanics’ low intelligence, but also their improvidence—earning a high school or college degree is hard work and requires the ability to defer gratification. Social scientists have found that high time preferences are a general characteristic of the poor, and particularly of the black and Hispanic poor. For example, University of California economist Emily C. Lawrence, examining preferences for unnecessary expenditures on food and for saving among different types of household, found that time preferences were higher for the poor than the wealthy and for the black and Hispanic poor than the white poor. Whites were more likely to save and invest their money rather than blowing it on the pleasures of the moment.7
Some of the best evidence of black and Hispanic improvidence comes from studies of their net worth. The average income of black households is 62 percent of the average white income, and that of Hispanics is 71 percent.8 Yet both black and Hispanic net worth is less than 10 percent of that of whites: Hispanic households have a median net worth of $7,932 and black households of $5,988 against whites’ $88,651. Hispanics’ net worth is thus just nine percent of whites’ and blacks’ just seven percent. It is clear then that blacks and Hispanics are less likely to save money than whites. Low Hispanic net worth is not due to their immigrant status. US-born Hispanics have a net worth of $10,425, which is still only 12 percent of the white net worth.9
Statistics on sexuality also reveal much about differences in time preferences among the races. It is in sexuality, after all, that the conflict between our desire for present gratification and our concern for our future well-being presents itself in the starkest form.
As expected, blacks and Hispanics show much lower providence when it comes to sex than whites do. Black births are more than twice as likely to take place out of wedlock than white births, and Hispanic births about 50 percent more likely.10
Sexual irresponsibility also leads Hispanics to be much more prone to sexual diseases than whites. Hispanics are 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than whites, and blacks 10 times more likely.11
The improvident are also more likely to be criminals than the provident. As I wrote in The Reality of Racial Differences, “Criminals are the best examples of people who favor present gratification at the expense of long-term rewards: a mugger is willing to sacrifice his whole future for the chance of stealing someone’s wallet.” It will come as no surprise then that Hispanic men are 3.5 times more likely to be in prison than whites and black men 7.8 times more likely.12
A sure sign of improvidence is the unwise use of credit. We are currently seeing the consequence of such improvidence in the increasing rate of mortgage defaults due to subprime home loans. The failure to repay debt has caused a wide-scale weakening of faith in the global financial markets that threatens to throw the American economy into recession. Many economists believe that our current difficulties are only the cusp of a tidal wave of defaults on bad debt.
Once again, the expected racial differences appear in incidence of subprime mortgages, with home loans to blacks being about 2.5 times more likely to be subprime and mortgages to Hispanics twice as likely.13 Nor can income disparities among the races account for the difference: the racial differences are even greater for affluent people, with affluent blacks and Hispanics more than three times more likely to have subprime mortgages than affluent whites.14 As the proportion of Hispanics in the American population rises, we can only expect to see further destabilization in our financial system.
Diversity, far from being a strength, means more home foreclosures, more prisons, more poor neighborhoods, and generally an increase in all that is nasty and depressing in our society. A healthy, prosperous nation requires a citizenry that meets minimum standards of intelligence and providence. If America ceases to do so, it will become more and more like Mexico as the years pass.
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- Richard Lynn. Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis (Augusta, GA: Washington Summit Publishers, 2006), pp. 159, 99, 163, 164. ↑
- Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters, “Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002,” (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, 2005, accessed 31 December 2007). Link ↑
- Greene and Winters’ “Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002” (see note 2) is used for the total Hispanic high school graduation rate and statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics are used for the high school drop-out rates of Hispanics by immigrant generation (see note 4). Because of differences in the method of calculating dropout rates, Greene and Winters’ study shows considerably higher dropout rates across the board than the NCES statistics. The Greene and Winters measurement is more methodologically rigorous than the NCES one and so I have used it for overall graduation rates. However, because Greene and Winters do not give information on Hispanic dropout rates by generation, I have used NCES statistics for this measurement. In addition, I have used the term “first generation” to refer to Hispanics born outside the United States; the NCES uses the term to designate Hispanics whose parents were born in the United States. I believe my usage of the term is the more usual one. ↑
- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “Table 23-2. Status dropout rates and number and percentage distribution of dropouts ages 16–24, by selected characteristics: October 2005” from The Condition of Education (Washington, DC: NCES, 2007, accessed 31 December 2007). Link ↑
- NCES, “Table 12-2. Average mathematics scores of 12th-grade students, by content area and student and school characteristics: 2005” from The Condition of Education (Washington, DC: NCES, 2007, accessed 31 December 2007). Link. NCES, “Table 11-2. Average reading score for 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-graders, by selected student and school characteristics: 1992 and 2005 (Washington, DC: NCES, 2007, accessed 31 December 2007). Link. ↑
- US Census Bureau, Population Division, Current Population Survey, February 2006 [Computer file] (Washington, DC: USCB, 2006). This is a government dataset from which the statistics in the article were extracted. ↑
- Emily C. Lawrence, “Poverty and Rate of Time Preference,” Journal of Political Economy 99, no. 1 (1991): 69. ↑
- Carmen DeNavas-Walt et al., “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006” (Washington, DC: US Census Bureau, 2007), 7. Link ↑
- Rakesh Kochhar, “The Wealth of Hispanic Households: 1996-2002,” (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 2004), pp. 2, 29. Link ↑
- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Health in the United States, 2007 (Washington, DC: NCHS, 2007), 143. Link ↑
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “HIV/AIDS among Hispanics/Latinos” (Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accessed 31 December 2007). Link ↑
- William J. Sabol et al., “Prisoners in 2006” (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, 2007), 8. Link ↑
- Center for Responsible Lending, “A Snapshot of the Subprime Market” (Durham NC: Center for Responsible Lending, 2007, accessed 31 December 2007). Link ↑
- ACORN Fair Housing, “Foreclosure Exposure: A study of racial and income disparities in home mortgage lending in 172 American cities” (New Orleans: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, 2007), 2. Link ↑
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“Diversity, far from being a strength, means more home foreclosures, more prisons, more poor neighborhoods, and generally an increase in all that is nasty and depressing in our society. A healthy, prosperous nation requires a citizenry that meets minimum standards of intelligence and providence. If America ceases to do so, it will become more and more like Mexico as the years pass.”
Actually, we are likely to wind up like South Africa, when it was run by the white minority there. That, or we end up like the former Yugoslavia or USSR and break apart?
America will likely retain a white majority until about 2030, even at that point we will probably remain between roughly 50% and 48% of the country? That would be a large enough percentage to maintain white control, but would require a galvanized white population that is no longer “color blind” and willing to act in its own interests. This will also require segregating all police forces and the US Military; this would be because, to maintain such a system will require such forces to impose the socially limiting contacts between whites and nonwhites, that Apartheid requires. One cannot expect nonwhites to be particularly pleased about this (they always prefer whitey “share,”) and there is likely going to be very heavy resistance to this, at least n the early stages of that type of solution.
That in the long run, it would be to their collective benefit will be of little consequence in the “debate” as is such, from their end; they will simply react with the typical violence and mayhem that has “worked” in the past for them. However, if whites are determined at this point to at least “manage” their mistake, intense “reciprocity” in terms of retroactions that should have been taken in the 1960s through 1990s, might just do the trick?
Of course, it could also lead to an ever escalating cycle of violence between that races, that eventually erupts into a civil war too?
This is unfortunate and avoidable in the moment; whites are still about 65% of the population and could reverse the trends “of color” in our demographics, reasonably easily today. However, the will just isn’t there yet and we are actually seeing the possibility that a black “former” Muslim, could be our next President. In the next decade, we will be about 62% to 59% of the population and still be in a position to act with reasonable expectations of limited violence and overall success in reversing our national “suntan?”
After that, our choices narrow, things become desperate and possibly so out of control that the center cannot hold?
Then some of us, or our children and grandchildren (depending on age,) will get to enjoy saving Rome or watching it fall?
Oh, happy “diversity” days and God help us all then!
By on 1/6/08 at 5:52 pm
“America will likely retain a white majority until about 2030, even at that point we will probably remain between roughly 50% and 48% of the country? That would be a large enough percentage to maintain white control, but would require a galvanized white population that is no longer “color blind” and willing to act in its own interests. This will also require segregating all police forces and the US Military; this would be because, to maintain such a system will require such forces to impose the socially limiting contacts between whites and nonwhites, that Apartheid requires. One cannot expect nonwhites to be particularly pleased about this (they always prefer whitey “share,”) and there is likely going to be very heavy resistance to this, at least n the early stages of that type of solution.”
Wait, I thought this site was against Duke’s kind of thinking? What’s with you wanting to bring about a new form of Apartheid?
“One cannot expect nonwhites to be particularly pleased about this (they always prefer whitey “share,”) and there is likely going to be very heavy resistance to this, at least n the early stages of that type of solution.”
Yes, it’s only non-whites who are going to be displeased. After all, all non-whites are all hyper-ethnocentric at heart, and any whites who aren’t are just brainwashed or mentally ill.
“Of course, it could also lead to an ever escalating cycle of violence between that races, that eventually erupts into a civil war too?”
Do you have any plausible dynamic that would show how the US would erupt into civil war on…. racial lines? I’m expecting you to cite cases like Yugoslavia, numerous post-colonial african states, etc., though wern’t nearly all of those people involving the same race?
By on 1/8/08 at 5:22 pm
Comrade BSP, we meet again!
First, I would like to thank you, for your reasoned and honest responses to my hypothetical questions regarding the proposed multicultural China. That was simply smashing stuff!
Second, I will answer your ever so incisive questions here, but with a bit more diligence:
A.) “Wait, I thought this site was against Duke’s kind of thinking? What’s with you wanting to bring about a new form of Apartheid?”
I never suggested that I wanted “to bring about a new form of Apartheid.” Even, if this were my deepest desire, I am in no position to do so; I am simply speculating on what might be the most likely political evolution in the USA, when whites have been reduced to only a sizable plurality of the population. The current multicultural dynamic, where a sizeable white majority (65%) is used and abused by the socioeconomic and political systems to “better” nonwhites through affirmative action and social welfare programs (reverse Apartheid) will no longer be viable at that stage of the game. At that point, whites are not going to be regionally separated from the “strengths” of diversity, but wallowing in it; that is when, at least at first, something like the Apartheid model will possibly be experimented with.
B.) “Yes, it’s only non-whites who are going to be displeased. After all, all non-whites are all hyper-ethnocentric at heart, and any whites who aren’t are just brainwashed or mentally ill.”
This rather rambling and inarticulate set of remarks, seems to be more an exercise in projecting your reverse “tolerance” obsessions and paranoia onto me and this website, than anything remotely resembling debate or discussion. It is a rather obvious observation, that all racial groups (including even whites) are drawn to each other in times of crisis. “White flight” from cities such as Detroit and Atlanta throughout the 1970s and 1980s, or the white and black exoduses from California since the late 1990s, are examples of this. Indeed, only foolish or elitist whites “believe” otherwise from their 90% white or better living conditions in the West, but most others regardless of race do not.
C.) “Do you have any plausible dynamic that would show how the US would erupt into civil war on…. racial lines? I’m expecting you to cite cases like Yugoslavia, numerous post-colonial african states, etc., though wern’t nearly all of those people involving the same race?”
While I find it interesting, that you avoided mentioning the USSR in that questioning diatribe (we all know it is still a thriving multiracial Marxist “wonderland”) I need not look further than the USA, to demonstrate such a dynamic. California, the land of a 45% white minority and a 55% majority of Third World “diversity,” is not doing very well. Hispanics are turning once black ghettos into ethnically cleansed barrios, and whites and blacks are fleeing the state by 500,000 a year. Moreover, California is not thriving economically as some would propose investments in “diversity” would magically have it do; social services and even infrastructure are being overwhelmed, not buttressed.
Please remember, California is a state with about 42 million people in it; that size of a population is enough to be a country’s, and California’s geography and resources should be able to support it (particularly when that “magic” substance called diversity is added to the mix) and make it an exemplar of the sociopolitical construct of multiculturalism.
So why has this not been the case?
Moreover, when the USA no longer is territorially able to allow such exoduses to other areas from such diversity to more homogenous regions, simply through overpopulation by the “enriching” of the Third World, what do you think will happen?
Sunshine, lollypops, rainbows, and everything…?
A nice “thought” Comrade BSP, but not very realistic!
By on 1/8/08 at 8:29 pm
To John PM,
In your post from above I did not see any mention of economic factors. Is this because you do not believe they will play an important part or that you do not foresee an economic disaster waiting in the wings?
By on 1/9/08 at 6:59 am
To Henry Stanton, regarding:
“In your post from above I did not see any mention of economic factors. Is this because you do not believe they will play an important part or that you do not foresee an economic disaster waiting in the wings?”
In general, I do not try to predict how the economy will go one way, or the other. In terms of our racial “deconstruction,” I broadly believe that we are heading toward becoming a Third World nation. Thus, the dwindling white majority (or new plurality) will likely maintain the “status quo” into the future, barring some unforeseen disaster until it hits a breaking point. As larger numbers of whites (men in particular) are systematically marginalized through targeted taxation and affirmative action, that will eventually occur.
Other issues, such as: downsizing, outsourcing, global devaluation of the dollar, and imperialism as social work, can and likely will have unpredictable effects; however, speculating about them endlessly is beyond a quick post like this one.
I am no economist, but I am always willing to listen and learn on such topics. Is there any particular current economic issue that you see as pressing, such as the dollars’ shrinking value when set against the Euro and other currencies?
All the best Henry,
John PM!
By on 1/11/08 at 9:09 am
To John PM,
I also am not an economist but will give it my best shot.
When President Bush took office the national debt was at $5.6 trillion it now stands at 9.2 trillion. In the time it took you to read this it has shot up another million.
The current financial state of America is not sustainable. We have many future economic commitments such as the war, baby boomer’s social security/retirements, prescription drug plans, medicare/medicaid, and social spending such as welfare and medical care. This will drive the national debt to staggering levels.
Due to social engineering workplaces, schools and universities have all moved from a logical commitment to excellence to an illogical commitment to diversity and politically correct thinking. This translates to a nation where not much gets done. Factories are moved overseas. It is hard to name much of anything that is made in America anymore. American companies such as the top three car companies are struggling. In addition, the massive influx of immigrants legal and illegal is draining every aspect of America financially and mentally. As a nation we make less and less money.
Due to these factors I see nothing in the future that will change the current financial suicide course that will see that 9.2 trillion grow and grow. Eventually we will reach a stage resembling the former Soviet Union, but much worse. Many of the posters (including me) posit that only the bread and circuses keeps Whites in their current mesmerized state. What happens when they are cut off and we “feel the pain”?
If at this point we are still (as you said above) used and abused by the socioeconomic and political systems to “better” nonwhites through affirmative action and social welfare programs then my belief is that Whites will collectively blow a friggin’ gasket.
The best to you also John,
Henry S.
By on 1/12/08 at 12:12 am
Although my real world experience dealing with Hispanics had led me to the conclusion that they are, on average, significantly less intelligent than Whites, I was nevertheless shocked to learn from this article that the average IQ of American Hispanics is 89, only 4 points higher than average American Black IQ, and a whopping 10 points lower than that of American Whites.
The important distinction to be made between Blacks and Hispanics is therefore cultural, not intellectual. Anyone who has observed Blacks cannot help but come to the conclusion that for all their hate Whitey rhetoric they desperately desire (need would not be too strong a term) validation from and by Whites. We are talking about a classic parent/child dynamic. The child defines himself vis-a-vis (positively and negatively) the parent. The one thing the child cannot do is stand alone. That is the situation of Blacks in America. Is this, in large measure, the legacy of slavery? Probably. But so what? The pattern is too embedded to change at this late date. They, the Blacks, are our impossible children. And, as with impossible children, the friction is constant and great between Whites and Blacks. We really can’t separate from them because they won’t have it.
Hispanics, on the other hand, are quite content, in fact want to be, a separate population. They are, unlike the Blacks, culturally confident. The decision on their part not to learn English is deliberate. After all, why become fluent in the language of the enemy. Replace the enemy. When your numbers are great enough simply push him out: Southern California, South Florida, soon most of the Southwest. There is less, somewhat less, daily friction between Whites and Hispanics than that between Whites and Blacks. But the threat is greater than that from Blacks. For Hispanics don’t need Whites. They simply want us gone. And soon they will separate us…from huge tracts of our own land.
By on 1/19/08 at 5:47 pm
This century may well prove to be the century that the U.S. falls well into ” 3rd world status”. Should we just all accept that the way of the Black and Hispanic is the way of future America?
Well, we really do not have a choice unless we Whites unite against extreme odds to save a remnant of us. And wouldn’t this undoubtedly mean a huge amount of bloodshed because the government and the non-white races are so, so extremely opposed to any attempt at us whites seperating off to ourselves?
By on 2/8/08 at 7:31 pm
With regards to IQ, we also need to consider who immigrates to the United States. I’d guess most Asian and even African immigrants to the US have an IQ well above the average for their respective countries. However, what is the situation for Mexican immigrants?
The real effect of affirmative action is to integrate those higher IQ blacks, even if they are small in number, into white society. This is still an ongoing process, but I don’t see why it would end.
Another thing to consider is mating habits. As the movie Idiocracy starkly demonstrates, a decline in IQ can occur if high-IQ individuals have less children. In what races, do high IQ couples have the most children?
By on 4/30/08 at 1:00 pm
>In what races, do high IQ couples have the most children?
In China’s one-child policy, there is a loophole. If you go over the limit, you must pay a fine. The government doesn’t just shoot your child and then shoot you.
If you make enough money, you can afford the fine. Second and third children have become status symbols.
By on 6/16/08 at 12:44 am
You forgot to take at least one thing into account when saying blacks have a higher college rate than Hispanics.
Blacks are basically given free (as usual) college tuition, or very cheap. The bar is also made lower for them. I’ve talked to a number of white high school teachers in predominantly black schools, and they HATE it. They say the “kids today just don’t want to learn”. When probed a bit more, they say, under their breath, that the black students don’t work to get ahead. They slack off, and many have a 3rd grade reading level in 11th and 12th grade.
Worse, the teachers are pressured into letting them pass for 2 reasons. #1, as usual, if they don’t get good grades, their parents blame it on the school and teacher, NEVER on their own child as being lazy and stupid.
Number 2 is that the teachers pay might not go up if a bunch of their stupid students don’t pass. Afterall, what would that say about the teacher, right? So they pass a certain percentage of kids, regardless of their grades.
You also failed to mention that colleges actively RECRUIT blacks. I mean, I’ve read about many schools in the metro Atlanta area that “reach out” (ie., give free tuition and other perks) to blacks, to try to get a certain percent of them.
I talked to a white guy who needed to take a class for a college credit, and the only school he could get into in order to get that for that school semester, was a class at Morehouse College, a black college. He said there were 8 white kids in that class, it was on audio/visual/filming, etc. He said the teacher (black) was hardly ever there to even teach, because he had a 2nd job in the film industry. He just assigned reading assignments, and had cameras there for the students to load 8mm film into, etc. Of course, the school would never fire the teacher, one of their own for being incompetent? Perish the thought.
My friend said that the black teacher failed all 8 white kids. Any sound of racism from the school? No. From the media? No. Did Jesse Jackson fly down to shout about this? No. Like the book title, All quiet on the western front. Not a peep to be heard.
So, I’m sure for blacks going to college at black colleges (and probably white colleges as well), the bar is lowered AND you get free money to go.
With Hispanics, though they may not be driven to go to academic school, they seem to work and be pretty honest throughout life. Crime is much lower with them than with blacks.
Thanks,
Jeff
By jeff on 1/3/08 at 12:06 pm