Self-identified liberals & Democrats fail Econ101 questions

[Bramborska]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 32412.html

To be sure, none of the eight questions specifically challenge the political sensibilities of conservatives and libertarians. Still, not all of the eight questions are tied directly to left-wing concerns about inequality and redistribution. In particular, the questions about mandatory licensing, the standard of living, the definition of monopoly, and free trade do not specifically challenge leftist sensibilities.

How did the six ideological groups do overall? Here they are, best to worst, with an average number of incorrect responses from 0 to 8: Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67; Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.26.

Obviously, some questions are... Shall we say, debatable? Though many are not... How, exactly, can one screw up the monopoly question?

Yet on every question the left did much worse. On the monopoly question, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (31%) was more than twice that of conservatives (13%) and more than four times that of libertarians (7%). On the question about living standards, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (61%) was more than four times that of conservatives (13%) and almost three times that of libertarians (21%).

[Vittos Ordination]

The poll was designed to trip up liberals and democrats. It completely fails as a comparison between conservatives and liberals.

It still shows, however, that liberals and democrats are also likely to have their interpretations skewed by what they want to be true, just like everyone else.

[Southern Patriots]

Huh, I guess this disproves everything liberals and democrats have ever said or done.

[Abury]

Liberals don't know anything about economics! old news

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

[Wilgrove]

Yay Libertarians!

[Yootopia]

"7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree)." - Wut.

Of the EU countries, Germany has quite bad unemployment and zero minimum wage laws. Also, consider most of Africa. Now that's potentially more correlation than causation, but still.

[Bramborska]

Huh, I guess this disproves everything liberals and democrats have ever said or done.

Hmm, that's certainly one obtuse way to look at it.

Of course, you could also interpret it to mean that Democrats and Progressives, more than other ideological groups, find that their moral views impede their casual understanding of simple economic concepts.

[Third Spanish States]

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

There is a reason why economics isn't really a science.

[Wilgrove]

Liberals don't know anything about economics! old news

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

That is true, I took an economic course (I forgot if it was micro-economics or macro...) and he was a free market laisse-faire fan. Him and I actually discussed the merit of it during an entire class session. (I was the only one in the class )

[Yootopia]

How, exactly, can one screw up the monopoly question?

Because it's an "all A equal Bs, do all Bs equal As?" type question.

[Abury]

"7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree)." - Wut.

Of the EU countries, Germany has quite bad unemployment and zero minimum wage laws. Also, consider most of Africa. Now that's potentially more correlation than causation, but still.

IT IS SIMPLY LOGIC....if you value is X and the government forces me to pay you X+y then you will not get the fucking job

[Hydesland]

This article is complete bullshit, for instance there are empirical economic and econometric works that show that the supposed correct answer to the minimum wage question is not always correct, the question on exploitation was obviously a subjective question, and the question on monopolies is ambiguous.

[Post-Unity Terra]

What's with the recent crop of people lying about their compass scores? I didn't think you could get +/-10 without buying or expropriating the website.

[Yootopia]

"7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree)." - Wut.

Of the EU countries, Germany has quite bad unemployment and zero minimum wage laws. Also, consider most of Africa. Now that's potentially more correlation than causation, but still.

IT IS SIMPLY LOGIC.

No, it isn't.

[Hydesland]

Liberals don't know anything about economics! old news

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

No they don't, and I'm saying this as a person who gets taught by economics professors, please stop constantly spouting this bullshit or get out of this forum.

[DrVenkman]

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

There is a reason why economics isn't really a science.

If the consumer was rational, it would be. Until that happens, all bets are off.

[Abury]

There is a reason why economics isn't really a science.

economics is a HARD SCIENCE unlikely climatology,sociology,afro and women studies and all other bullshits

[Southern Patriots]

Huh, I guess this disproves everything liberals and democrats have ever said or done.

Hmm, that's certainly one obtuse way to look at it.

Of course, you could also interpret it to mean that Democrats and Progressives, more than other ideological groups, find that their moral views impede their casual understanding of simple economic concepts.

I find looking at topics in NSG in an obtuse fashion helps make up for the barrage of generalisations and extremes they contain.

[Bramborska]

"7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree)." - Wut.

Of the EU countries, Germany has quite bad unemployment and zero minimum wage laws. Also, consider most of Africa. Now that's potentially more correlation than causation, but still.

A price floor causes a surplus of the good that it applies to. I suppose there is some wiggle room when it deals with such an squiffy good like labor, but usually it's a fairly absolute economic principle.

[Hydesland]

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

There is a reason why economics isn't really a science.

Whether or not this is the case, it has nothing to do with what Abury is saying, which is just nonsense.

[Yootopia]

there is a reason why economics professors tend to be free-market laisse-faire fanatics

There is a reason why economics isn't really a science.

If the consumer was rational, it would be. Until that happens, all bets are off.

Errr I don't see how that would make it more scientific. There are, after all, no control experiments in economics.

[Yootopia]

"7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree)." - Wut.

Of the EU countries, Germany has quite bad unemployment and zero minimum wage laws. Also, consider most of Africa. Now that's potentially more correlation than causation, but still.

A price floor causes a surplus of the good that it applies to. I suppose there is some wiggle room when it deals with such an squiffy good like labor, but usually it's a fairly absolute economic principle.

"Usually" is not good enough.

[Hydesland]

Errr I don't see how that would make it more scientific. There are, after all, no control experiments in economics.

Actually, there can be plenty of control experiments in economics (particularly behavioural economics), just as there can be control experiments in behavioural psychology as a whole. Furthermore, you can still empirically test most economic propositions through the use of econometric data.

[Barringtonia]

If it was a Bell curve distributed somewhat to those who identified conservative, I'd not be too surprised though questioning some of the definitions of 'enlightened' answers, i.e., 6) Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree)... well somewhat it does by its very nature, although whether it's inherently 'free trade' as compared to a lack of full state-employment...

...however, for it to be linear along the lines of: Very conservative, 1.30; Libertarian, 1.38; Conservative, 1.67; Moderate, 3.67; Liberal, 4.69; Progressive/very liberal, 5.26.

That's highly suspect, and one has to question the framing of the questions and their conclusions.

[Abury]

If the consumer was rational, it would be. Until that happens, all bets are off.

Errr I don't see how that would make it more scientific. There are, after all, no control experiments in economics.[/quote]

You don't need experiments when you can argue with logic

I'm a fan of austrian economists because Austrian economists reject empirical, statistical methods