Good thing it’s not a final exam…

By E M Barner | Monday, November 22nd, 2010 | Policy

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press has released the results of their latest News IQ Quiz.

Partisans across the political spectrum will be interested in the results of the twelve questions Pew asked.

As it turns out, among respondents:

77% know that the budget deficit larger than in the 90s.

41% know that relations between Pakistan and India are unfriendly.

75% know that Republicans did the best in the midterms but

only 38% could pick John Boehner out of four names as the next Speaker of the House;

and 46% know that Republicans will be in the majority only in the House of Representatives in January.

15% could recognize the name of Great Britain’s Prime Minister.

64% knew that we have a trade deficit.

14% accurately recognized the inflation rate at 1%.

16% knew that more than half of the TARP bank bailout money has been re-payed to the federal government.

53% picked the unemployment rate correctly at about 10%.

39% could pick the highest area of federal spending from a list of four categories

and 26% recognized Android as the Google operating system for smartphones.

These statistics are cautionary for activists of all stripes. On average, Americans answered 42% of these rather simple multiple-choice questions correctly. College graduates did little better – getting only 56% of the answers correct. In general, it seems like it’s a good thing Americans weren’t being graded on their answers.

As First Thoughts asked in response, “Do we really know enough to govern ourselves?”

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About the author

E M Barner

E M Barner, the blogger formerly known as DCH / De Civitate Hominis (“concerning the city of man”), writes from a Northern Virginia perspective. Barner has been active in Republican politics and policy since 1994 – as a grassroots volunteer, party leader, and professional.

Comments

12 Responses to "Good thing it’s not a final exam…"

Brian Schoeneman November 22, 2010 22:50 pm
Fortunately, we don’t ask individuals to vote on legislation – we ask them to choose between people to make those decisions for us.

For that, I think the electorate is well suited and generally does a pretty good job.
kelley in virginia November 23, 2010 07:22 am
these percentages are higher than what I would have expected. kudos to right wing radio/TV hosts & right wing bloggers for educating the general public on debt/economic issues.
Brian Kirwin November 23, 2010 08:34 am
An amateur built the Ark. Experts built the Titanic.
J.R. Hoeft November 23, 2010 09:04 am
There are some questions on here though that you have to wonder, do they really matter? Seriously, who needs to know that the director of Avatar is the prime minister of Great Britain?

Also, how much does the inflation rate matter – as long as folks know the price of things are going up and how fast they’re able to keep up with affording things?

Some of these questions, frankly, are trivial.
Steve Vaughan November 23, 2010 09:45 am
J.R.: Not sure that I agree that the inflation rate is trivial. A lot of decisions that we make on a daily basis involve what we think the financial future will hold. Fear of runaway inflation, as we had in the ’70s, could affect those decisions. In fact, it has affected the decisions the folks running the financial system have been making for the last 25 years. Prime Minister of Great Britian, I agree with you. General public doesn’t really have much use for that information.
Brian Kirwin November 23, 2010 09:52 am
Or even how to spell Great Britain, apparently, Steve.
Ryan Gleason November 23, 2010 10:04 am
The data fits the theory of rational ignorance pretty well. And, a single voter has very little chance of affecting policy, so why should a person study? We have an electorate who are “rationally irrational”.

Thus, at the extreme it can be said: “We’re ruled by fools election after election because the majority habitually prefers affable fools to disagreeable pedants.” – Bryan Caplan.

-Ryan
Brian Schoeneman November 23, 2010 10:08 am
The ark didn’t have to cross the Atlantic, Brian. It just had to float.
Linda November 23, 2010 10:58 am
These results show that more people are becoming educated, but also show that there is more work to be done.
Steve Vaughan November 23, 2010 11:53 am
Brian Kirwin, Typo Police.
HisRoc November 23, 2010 18:41 pm
I had no idea that David Cameron directed Avatar. How come the Na’vi don’t speak with British accents? Is that because the British Prime Minister is a Canadian?

My head hurts.
James Hawkins November 26, 2010 04:16 am
Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story

Film maker Martin Durkin explains the full extent of the financial mess we are in: an estimated £4.8 trillion of national debt and counting. It’s so big that even if every home in the UK was sold it wouldn’t raise enough cash to pay it off.

Durkin argues that to put Britain back on track we need to radically rethink the role of the state, stop politicians spending money in our name and introduce, among other measures, flat taxes to make Britain’s economy boom again.

This polemical film presented by Martin Durkin, brings economic theory to life and makes it hit home. It includes interviews with academics, economic experts, entrepreneurs, no less than four ex-Chancellors of the Exchequer and the biggest stack of £50 notes you’ll never see.

It’s not only America that is drowning in debt.

Socialists are wrecking Britain as well.

http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2010/11/britains-trillion-pound-horror-story.html

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