"Civics" quiz
So, a lot of people are blogging about the ISI's "Civics" quiz, the one most Americans got 49% on with "elected officials" (whatever that means) getting only 44% on. Here's how I did: You answered 32 out of 33 correctly — 96.97 %
Here's the one I got wrong. But surely (a) is right, too, unless somehow the government is "spending" money that doesn't count as "spending".
If taxes equal government spending, then:
A. government debt is zero
B. printing money no longer causes inflation
C. government is not helping anybody
D. tax per person equals government spending per person - this is their answer
You can take it here.
ps - since when is Sputnik "civics"?
Labels: quizzes
3 Comments:
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At 1:56 PM, November 29, 2008
fev had this to say...
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At 8:10 AM, November 30, 2008
AbbotOfUnreason had this to say...
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At 5:45 AM, December 03, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Heh. Wonder when macroeconomics became part of "civic literacy."
In the sense that two equal things divided by the same thing (population) are still equal, their answer is correct, I guess. But it's hard to think of any real-world meanings under whioh that holds. (I mean, how do you want to count the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement stuff?)
Thanks for the link, though -- many lovely examples of mendacious reasoning supported by faulty question design in the summary and findings.
Maybe it's that A is only true if the equation of taxes=spending has always been true. A lot of people seem to think that a balanced budget means no debt, but if you start with debt, balancing the budget doesn't immediately make the debt go away.
I just noticed this in their results pages:
Whether the question concerns “the Fed,” fiscal policy, trade, or free enterprise in general, "College Joe" appears to be economically illiterate.
"College Joe"? Are these people Americans?
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