5 Feet of Fury

Derb: 4 Billion [More] Africans

John Derbyshire writes:

Africa’s gift to the 20th century was AIDS. Now ebola is surging. Will this improve when the disease agents have four times as many people to mutate among?

There is also the delicate matter of human capital, of population quality. Why do so many black Africans want out of the place? Bad government and low levels of civilizational attainment. But what accounts for those?

I find smart fraction theory persuasive: sub-Saharan Africa just doesn’t have enough clever people. With four times today’s population, black Africa will have four times as many smart people, but unfortunately the same fraction, so the population increase won’t help.