Self-identified liberals & Democrats fail Econ101 questions

[South Lorenya]

Do you have any proof that has actual FACTS to support it (as oppoosed to being someone's opinion)?

[Yootopia]

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

Rhetoric's for pricks.

[Carls-land]

obviously because the ''correct'' answers are biased

[Eternal Yerushalayim]

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.

Then the stupid M and W test was designed to trip up conservatives, libertarians and republicans, how 'bout that?

[Meroivinge]

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

Economics is a social science, like sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc.

Climatology is a hard science like biology, physics, astronomy.

I suggest you review terms and understand them before making arguments by fiat.

[Eternal Yerushalayim]

obviously because the ''correct'' answers are biased

Obviously because if there could be a completely correct answer, congress can retire.

[Yootopia]

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.

Aye but it's near-impossible to accurately say "this would work better if you did x", because there's a lot around the periphery of economics which economists seemingly often ignore, such as the role of societal tradition in how the economy works and so on and so forth.

[Georgism]

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

So they reject a grounding in reality?

Edit: To fix quotes.

[Hydesland]

, because there's a lot around the periphery of economics which economists seemingly often ignore, such as the role of societal tradition in how the economy works and so on and so forth.

This is not ignored at all. One of the latest papers I did was almost entirely on societal tradition with regards to the work ethic of Japan.

[Yootopia]

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.

Then the stupid M and W test was designed to trip up conservatives, libertarians and republicans, how 'bout that?

Never saw it, but that's potentially true.

[Bramborska]

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.

I believe answering "not sure" to any of the questions doesn't result in a 'incorrect' answer. If you knew that price floors cause shortages but were also thinking of some study showing minimum wage doesn't act like all the other price floors, a solid "Not Sure" seems like the most obvious answer. The answers that stated MW doesn't affect (un)employment implies that the respondents either don't know or won't acknowledge the affects of a price floor.

And I completely agree on the question of exploitation; obviously subjective.

And I somewhat agree with the monopoly question. I mean, it is certainly ambiguous, but it still doesn't contend for the large differences across ideological lines. The wording would be a good explanation for high levels of incorrect answers, but not much else.

[Abury]

Economics is a social science, like sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc.

Climatology is a hard science like biology, physics, astronomy.

I suggest you review terms and understand them before making arguments by fiat.

If climatology is a hard science why is there no consensus about anything (Global Warming etc etc) ?

[Eternal Yerushalayim]

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.

Then the stupid M and W test was designed to trip up conservatives, libertarians and republicans, how 'bout that?

Never saw it, but that's potentially true.

http://www.ironshrink.com/articles.php?artID=070923_conservative_neuroscience_study

Somehow a few geniuses decided that politics have something to do with brains.

[Yootopia]

If you knew that price floors cause shortages but were also thinking of some study showing minimum wage doesn't act like all the other price floors, a solid "Not Sure" seems like the most obvious answer.

No, there's a difference between "I'm not sure", which is totally neutral, and "somewhat disagree", which is probably closer to the truth than the other options.

[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 it's usually a fairly absolute economic principle.

"Usually" is not good enough.

Fixed.

[Person012345]

1. Who did they choose? Conservative economic professors and people off the street who consider themselves "liberal"? Do we know?
2. Just because someone self identifies as liberal doesn't mean they are.
3. the economic right continuously posting these stupid and unscientific studies in a desperate attempt to prove themselves smarter and therefore "right" just makes you look insecure.

Edit: Also, I was under the impression that economics was not a strict science, who the hell decides if the answers are "right or wrong" unless all the questions were simply stark facts, and therefore not much to do with economic policy? Which, looking, apparently most of them weren't straight up facts. The questionairre was a complete joke. How about I do one like "will monopolies form in a complete free market system" (wrong answer "no"). How would you guys look then?

[Free Soviets]

i firmly believe that a certain strain of libertarians and conservatives are setting back the cause of academic economics by decades.

[Vittos Ordination]

Liberals don't know anything about economics! old news

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

Wow! You really know nothing about the economics field at this time do you?

[Tagmatium]

If climatology is a hard science why is there no consensus about anything (Global Warming etc etc) ?

Because global warming is just a facet of climatology?

[Hydesland]

i firmly believe that a certain strain of libertarians and conservatives are setting back the cause of academic economics by decades.

Thank you.

[Barringtonia]

Economics is a social science, like sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc.

Climatology is a hard science like biology, physics, astronomy.

I suggest you review terms and understand them before making arguments by fiat.

If climatology is a hard science why is there no consensus about anything (Global Warming etc etc) ?

There is among climatologists, if not most scientists,

[Franca-Liria]

First, the test is based around the neo-liberal economics courses which only discuss the merits of a free-market, and only use logic and reasoning which degrade government intervention, price ceilings, price floors, etc. The economics courses are biased toward support of the free market in that aggregate supply and demand curve projections are taken as perfect fact, and that the market will always respond exactly as their neo-liberal policies and ideas say it should.

Secondly, the media sourse, the Wall Street Journal, is a noted conservative economic publication. Its owner, Rupert Murdoch, is also the owner of the News Company, the parent of FOX News Channel, a well-known media outlet for its conservative bias.

Given these points, this article cannot be taken at face value concerning economic aptitude, since the test is based around neo-liberal economic studies already biased toward the libertarian viewpoint, and the reporting agency is a notorious conservative media force.

[Vittos Ordination]

"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.

Thats fairly basic:

Increase in the price of labor -> decrease quantity demanded in labor

[Unchecked Expansion]

"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.

Thats fairly basic:

Increase in the price of labor -> decrease quantity demanded in labor

However, it also increases the buying power of workers. Which increases demand for products

[Yootopia]

If climatology is a hard science why is there no consensus about anything (Global Warming etc etc) ?

People who are trained generally believe that we are affecting the rate of climate change. People who aren't don't. That's not a lack of scientific consensus, it's a lack of popular faith in the hard-to-observe work of scientists.

There are graphs out there but I can't be arsed to find them.