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Notes -
Europe is a possible counter-example both to various naive forms of HBD and also to the notion that ethno-nationalism is an advantage.
Europe is much more white than the US and is also much more ethno-nationalist than the US, yet it lags the US significantly both in GDP per capita (although I am not convinced that this is a very good metric) and also, it seems to me, in economic innovation (Europe is responsible for almost no major software companies).
Some possible counterarguments:
"The best talent of Europe came to the US." - But Germany, for example, has a higher average IQ than the US does. In any case, the IQ difference between the US and Europe, in either direction, does not seem to be large enough to be significant.
"Europe has been dealing with the aftermath of WW2." - But that does not explain why Europe had WW2 to begin with, or why the US was not comparably harmed by its Civil War. The US Civil War killed a comparable fraction of the US population to what Europe lost in WW2, but the US Civil War did not fundamentally slow the trajectory of US economic or geopolitical rise.
"Europe has been shackled by socialism." - But similarly to my objection to #2, this does not explain why Europe is, to begin with, more fond of socialism than the US is.
Am I getting something wrong? Is Europe more innovative than I give it credit for?
European civilisation arose over centuries from the post-apocalyptic mess left in the wake of the Roman empire and was accompanied by nearly ceaseless warfare. The US by contrast arose from a much more stable foundation and then expanded rapidly with the help of advanced technology that made it far easier to maintain and control large amounts of territory. This expansion also had the added bonus of allowing the nation to direct a substantial amount of its energy towards western expansion, rather than having to jostle with neighbours you've been fighting with since days long forgotten. These factors combine to allow the US government to control a substantially larger area than would ever be feasible in Europe, as WW2 quite nicely demonstrates. This control was often fairly loose, but largely unchallenged, resulting in a degree of stability that was not seen outside of the UK in Europe and over an area of territory several times larger.
For the record, I do not subscribe to the "IQ is the be-all and end-all" thing some people seem to around here, but I would describe myself as an ethno-nationalist. I would argue that the United States has succeeded in spite of not being an ethno-state, that its multiple massive advantages have been enough to overcome this disadvantage. Imagine what the US could have achieved with all the energy it has wasted squabbling over race, just think of the forests of trees and oceans of ink wasted on writing about it, the brainpower spent trying to find a way to put blacks and whites in a great collective "get-along-shirt", not to mention the smaller squabbles between the other races.
I often see people on here who look at the runaway success of the US and then draw the conclusion that the US way of doing things must simply be better in all the relevant fields. While I believe the US does lead the way in quite a few areas, I also believe that it is quite probable that many of the systems and methods used in the US either simply wouldn't work in a different enviroment or are actively hindering the US, but that again this is compensated for by a few truly staggering advantages. It's like having an 8 foot tall MMA fighter in a competition, you're probably not going to finish first if you're a rank amateur, but you don't have the same pressure to truly get your technique down if you want to win.
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