Race to the Top

Here's a thought-provoking article about the importance of race in economic growth: "China's Race Problem." It's become popular to speak of the end of the American hegemony, what with jackrabbits like India and China racing up the economic ladder with breathtaking growth rates. But, despite its many foibles, America remains without peer in its diversity and inclusivity: however vivid our racial problems, they only underscore that we can and do try in this arena. Contrast that to the relative homogeneity of other otherwise promising nations, or, alternatively, the absolute ethnicity-based divisions that rend entire other nations.

One can easily debate whether the extended run of America may indeed be coming to an end soon. And it is similarly possible to consider whether or not such an end would be a good thing for the world. What is clear to me is that there is competitive advantage in multiculturalism, and those nations who advance will be those who foster it, finding a healthy balance between shunning heterogeneity and being riven by it.