US officials flunk test of Amerian history, economics, civics

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Yahoo / UK Ireland AFP

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20081120/tod-us-officials-flunk-test-of-amerian-h-f62056d.html

[melody]

1. Why is the UK obsessed with the US general public's scores on anything?

As I recall, the ones coming out of the UK on their history weren't terribly impressive.

[Aqaba]

2. I got 31/33

I did get lucky on a couple.

Here's a link to the quiz.

http://americancivicliteracy.org/">Take the Quiz!

[eyesroll]

3. I got a 31/33.

Missed one due to my carelessness (I know due process isn't a First Amendment right) and missed one legitimately.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. I got 84.85

I am Officially Hot Shit.

:sarcasm:

Some of those questions were so badly written as to be impossible to answer, so I can see how anyone would have trouble with them. But some of them were just factual, the stuff we all should have learned in Civics and Government and History classes in high school.

Now, isn't it about time for a reporter to go out into the street, show people the Bill Of Rights, and discover that most people wouldn't vote for such a document? I always despair when they do that...........................

[hughee99]

5. Got 'em all. 33/33

I was a little shaky on one or two, though. I wonder what the actually demographics of the respondents was. Did they get a bunch of repukes?

[Ioo]

6. 87.88

[jkshaw]

8. Beat you, Ioo!

I got 90.9%m but mainly because I've lived through some of it. And wrote about some of it.

[readmoreoften]

I stopped after the "free enterprise" push-poll style answers.

I resent the conflation of American civics and free market ideology.

[depakid]

9. It's just basic economics!

Even if you don't like the principles, it's a good idea to at least know how they work.

IMO, they're among the most salient questions on the test- and ones that, if which Americans knew more about, would be so easily bamboozled.

[readmoreoften]

15. "Why does a free-market economy work better than a centrally planned one?"

I dunno. Ask me in 2 years when we see where the stock market lands. Or better yet ask China. I don't like the conflation of free-market economics with American ideology. Also, the question on "what is free market capitalism?" is really misleading in its use of "individuals own..." Sure, if you accept that corporations are individuals...

[DLnyc]

27. I agree with you, and here is the letter I sent to the perpetrators of this quiz:

Dear Test Designers:

I enjoyed your quiz (I got 97% right), and I think it is a good idea to see what level of knowledge citizens and officials have. However, although most of the questions seem to test relevant and significant knowledge, at least two of your questions, in my opinion, assess the test-taker's political and economic opinions, not his/her knowledge. Specifically,

30) Which of the following fiscal policy combinations would a government most likely follow to stimulate economic activity when the economy is in a severe recession?
A. increasing both taxes and spending
B. increasing taxes and decreasing spending
C. decreasing taxes and increasing spending
D. decreasing both taxes and spending

Question 30 tests ones acceptance of the shibboleth that "you don't raise taxes in a recession". While raising taxes on those who have little disposable income is clearly a bad idea during a recession, raising taxes on those who have vastly more income than they can possibly spend, and who have benefited from excessive tax cuts under recent administrations, is not only harmless, but a very good idea (even in a recession).

Next,

31) International trade and specialization most often lead to which of the following?
A. an increase in a nation's productivity
B. a decrease in a nation's economic growth in the long term
C. an increase in a nation's import tariffs
D. a decrease in a nation's standard of living

This question, in my opinion, tests ones loyalty to the idea that 'free trade' is always good. There are a great number of economies in the world, including, for example, those of Argentina, Indonesia, Peru, Ecuador and many others which were devastated in recent decades by the World Bank's misguided (and greedy) devotion to 'free trade', which really just meant using these countries as a source for cheap labor while eliminating their products as competition to those of more powerful countries. In addition, there is one country which you may have heard of, called the United States of America, which embraced, and was promised great benefits from, 'free trade', but currently finds itself with escalating unemployment and exploding debt. Go figure!

My suggestion: try not to mix objective reality (most of the questions) with political/economic ideology (a couple of the questions, in my opinion).

[readmoreoften]

7. .

[Blue_In_AK]

10. 30/33 for me.

We must be very well informed here at DU. :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. I call shenanigans.

Every couple of months we get these stories about embarassing numbers of people failing an exam on civics.

It then prompts readers to take the test themselves.

The tests are invariably written by RW conservative think tanks, who throw in a few no-brainers along with conservative propaganda. This one, for instance, promotes the idea that prayer in school is not the establishment of religion. Or the idea that MLK's mall speech was contrary to affirmative action.

It ain't a test.

It's conservative rhetoric disguised as a test.

[readmoreoften]

16. I wholly agree with you.

The test forces you to choose "correct" conservative answers to the meaning of American history and culture.

[dsc]

12. I took it yesterday and got 32

but the one I missed I miss marked so should have gotten 33

[ProgressiveFool]

13. got 31/33

with only one real guess in there being the one about what the philosphers would agree on.

I was going to put Gettysburg address for where is "government of the people, by the people and for the people", but I thought Lincoln was quoting the Declaration of Independence there. Though I guess that would have been jumping the gun to have it in there, since the form of the govt to come wasn't even settled on at that point.

[ljm2002]

14. 30 out of 33

I would have gotten 31 right out of 33, but I read one of the questions wrong -- had I read it right, it was one of the easy questions.

I was surprised I got that many right to be truthful... :-)

[20score]

17. 31/33. But I'm calling bullshit on #33

They say:
33) If taxes equal government spending, then:
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person
I still say:
A. government debt is zero.
No deficit, no debt

[hughee99]

19. That one was confusing...

As I saw it, though, it's zero deficit, but unknown debt. Deficit is a snapshot of a particular period of time, but debt accumulates over the years. This would be true if you started with no debt, but if taxes=spending, and you started with debt, you still have it.

Answer "D" must be true, given the question, answer "A" could be true. When I took the quiz I read it as a yearly budget, but if you read it as an "all time" statistic (if all the taxes ever collected is equal to all the money the government ever spent), then A would be true as well. The question doesn't specify it.

[20score]

21. You're right, but I don't think whether or not you are running a deficit has

any bearing on how much is spent on an individual tax payer. What is spent in a particular area.
What am I missing?

[hughee99]

22. This seems more like a math question

than any sort of actual economic question. Regardless of where the money is actually spent, you're still talking about (total money spent)/taxpayers. It's an average.

For example (made up numbers):
The average taxpayer paid in 1000 dollars. There are 100 taxpayers. You have 100K.
You spend 100K, or an average of $1000 for each of your 100 taxpayers.

Even if all the money goes to pay for hookers and booze for 1 person, you still spent an average of $1000 per taxpayer. It's not really about how much you actually spend on the average taxpayer, it's about how much you spend per taxpayer, regardless of where the money goes.

The way it's phrased is pretty shitty. I re-read the question a few times because I thought it was more complicated than that, and when I answered, I still felt like I wasn't understanding the question properly.

[20score]

23. Thanks!

[Posteritatis]

24. It doesn't say taxes always equalled spending though

If, say, Obama ensures that government spending precisely equals tax income (and, for the sake of argument, ignoring other possible forms of government income) in the next budget, the deficit that year will be zero but the US will still have sagans of bucks' worth of debt.

If taxes equalled spending from day one, then the debt would be zero, of course, but that's not the case.

[rexcat]

18. 30/33 here!

nt

[Angleae]

20. 30/33 .. But 1 misclick twitch caused one incorrect answer

So 31/33

[onager]

25. Americans have always been stupid. You can look it up.

I'm not only stupid, but a lazy American, so you can find the links yourself. It isn't hard. :P

During WWII, general-knowledge tests on American government and geography were given to everyone joining the U.S. military. (Those tests probably lacked the obvious right-wing slant of this turkey.)

The government was appalled at the results. Americans knew little about the workings of their own government, and even less about world geography and history.

This led to some tough questions. How could you ask someone to die for "democracy" when they couldn't even define it?

And while even Americans might possibly be able to find London or Paris on a map, who the hell had ever heard of Guadalcanal, Peleliu or Iwo Jima? Places Americans would be sent and often slaughtered in large numbers. (Not even the government knew much about such places. Sometimes its only source of information was a few missionaries, academics or construction engineers.)

Those dismal test results partly inspired the famous "Why We Fight" film series during the war.

[fujiyama]

26. I got 32/33

I missed that last question. I thought the wording was confusing.

And some of the questions regarding the free market seemed to sound a little like RW propaganda (though I knew as I was taking it what kind of answers they wanted). Now, I don't think a "planned economy" is the answer, but all this worshiping at the alter of an unregulated free market has been proven over the last few months especially, to be fucking stupid.