Prof. Garett Jones is an economist at George Mason University, and (among many other things) is the author of the Singapore Trilogy, which includes:
The Hive Mind, and most recently,
The Culture Transplant: how migrants make the economies they move to a lot like the ones they left.
Random Walk writes often enough about immigration, including its outsized role in the current growth of the labor force, the unprecedented scale and scope of the current surge, and some of the under-examined tradeoffs of “growth by acquihire only.” As with most things Random Walk writes about, these are important things that, for whatever reason, don’t get as much (thoughtful) attention as they deserve.
Garett Jones, however, gives them thoughtful attention.1
Thoughtful attention that is particularly relevant to a prior Random Walkian declaration:
The country is going to be unrecognizable in a few decades. Oh sure, it might look familiar, but on the inside, the country is going to be completely different.
Whether that’s good or bad, time will tell, but there is no debating the point.
Why?
Well, the simple fact remains that it’s the people that make the place, and the people who are here now, just aren’t leaving much of themselves behind. At the same time, to the extent the country is growing, it’s growing almost entirely with people from other places. As present-day Americans get older and die, this place will increasingly be a function of the new and different people who make it.
That’s always been true, but it’s true now more so than it’s ever been.
At the time, I didn’t offer much evidence for the proposition “it’s the people that make the place,” but Prof. Jones wrote a whole book about it, so here we go.
Me & Mr. Prof. Jones talk The Culture Transplant, or how immigrants bring their cultures with them (for better and for worse)
Link to youtube, if you’d prefer to listen/watch that way, and as per always, I recommend watching on, at least, 1.25x speed:
00:00:01 Introduction; "Full assimilation is a myth;" normies should know; immigrants bring more than just cuisine
00:05:01 what are we selecting for?; don't differences fade with time?; certain traits endure generations
00:09:32 The 3 Ps and the key to big, ambitious projects
00:10:36 Why is it so hard to talk about culture and immigration?; Texas and the Confederate Diaspora; picking the right outgroups to pick on
00:16:27 social cohesion v. diversity strength; of Kenyan flower makers; largest single-day lynching; the melting pot myth
00:26:07 scoring cultural transfers; what best predicts national prosperity; "people matter more than places"; of communism and predation of WEIRDs2
00:32:33 SAT scores; What happened to Argentina?; Importing a love of anarchism
00:37:08 how European migrants brought the New Deal with them
00:41:28 But what of Florida and Texas?; A case for strong central rulemaking and less-democracy; Why can't we export our own culture? Is Personnel policy?
00:46:04 prediction time: will democracy work better or worse, going forward? Pre-'64 v. Post-'64 coalitions; Should we be less democratic? Everyone seems to think so, lately.
00:51:45 what else should we expect going forward?; using Big 5 personality tests at the border; pick things that are hard to fake, and other traits to select for; the importance of finding people better than us (and which countries do it well)
00:57:33 where are the places to watch? Canada?
00:59:16 explaining the "Singapore Trilogy"
01:01:53 a unique perspective on American Exceptionalism and the pioneer spirit (and Mormons)
01:04:25 Are NYC and SF hoarding talent; expanding the surface area of mega-cities; helicopter drop talent instead
01:06:17 Immigration and national aging
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Many sacred cows were harmed in the development of his book, and during the course of this interview. If that’s not your thing, then don’t watch.
This is a picture of the chart I referred to in the interview:
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