Wretchard,
The general principal that human genetic equipment is the same can be accepted without conceding your argument that any adult person can thrive if offered an opportunity by changing their location. Human productivity is determined by two factors, genetic and cultural. The reason that there is so little creative activity in the Islamic world is not due to rigid socialist regimentation. For most people economic activity takes place at the local level and despite flowery proclamations of Socialism by strongmen over the last 60 years entrepeneurship and small scale independent activity abounds. The problem must lay at a deeper level that discourages the essential skills of innovation, critical analysis, risk taking, tolerance and discovery that fuels economic growth. Culture is largely transmitted through language, less so through art. I am not a Linguist but would like to see a study of how the repetetive and constant focus on the words of the Koran have mapped human perceptions in a manner that a similar process of focus on the words of the Hebrew bible have produced different results. Here we have an almost perfect experiment, related cultures, related languages, related conditions, different results. Moving a person who lacks essential skills for adapting to a different culture will not make them productive. MOving a person who has lacked opportunities but whose culture encourages them to study and adapt will be succesful.