Unfortunately, groups that succeed economically have often been viewed, not as being super productive, but super exploitative of others. Societies characterized by cultural diversity have suffered from the political mobilization of envy that has led to legal restrictions on productive groups, preferential policies for those unable to compete with them, mass expulsions, confiscations, and mob violence. If an ethnic group's characteristics are not largely a product of its current environment, government cannot expect to cause it to change in a short period of time. Although groups may successfully resist outside pressure to change, they may of their own accord change. Sometimes these changes are profound.
Some cultures are more receptive than others to changes in technology.
They differ in their willingness to utilize a new technology, make it their own, and modify it to suit their own purposes and circumstances. Sowell quotes a student of Asian history who observes that some groups have with seeming ease jumped straight from a primitive mode of life into almost full participation in the world's economy. On the other hand, other groups that have for centuries enjoyed a much higher culture somehow fail to adapt themselves to new conditions. The United States adopted British technology more rapidly than did continental Europe. Although theirs was a vastly different culture from that of the British, after decades of lagging behind the West, the Japanese quickly forged to the forefront in several technologies.