"Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey that I write about in the May issue of Econ Journal Watch, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101." Then it says........
"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."Americans in the first three categories do reasonably well. But the left has trouble squaring economic thinking with their political psychology, morals and aesthetics."
Well...........interesting stuff, huh? Please, if you're going to vote, INFORM YOURSELVES, people! Ya, this is a bit tough on Dems, I know, maybe even a little mean of me........but I thought it was worth posting. We get called every name in the book....I guess I shouldn't feel TOO badly about posting this, huh?
42 comments:
An uninformed electorate dominates our political scene. For the moment.
Econ 101 lessons will be learned the hard way. The "recession" isn't over yet.
A Chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in he Class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new Communist government.
In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming.
When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.
The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as Supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, Dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, Drugs, etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.
One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you Cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the Future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!
Keep your eyes on the newly elected Politicians who are about to slam the gate on America.
"A Government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have!"
"But the left has trouble squaring economic thinking with their political psychology, morals and aesthetics."
Beamish's Hypothesis clearly states that all leftists are incapable of rational thought.
'bout time I got some vindication. ;P
Interesting, they assign a True/False to a value judgment like the third world worker question.
And higher minimum wage has not been correlated to unemployment.
The test is the pure stinky cheese.
I'm surprised they didn't add one touting tinkle down economics. Who funded this, the Business Roundtable?
yeah you know those darn professors in economics duhkkky they don't know what they're talking about
And higher minimum wage has not been correlated to unemployment.
____________________________________
Huh? Google 'minimum wage increase + unemployment increase' — somewhere in the over 4 million hits should be some correlation to it, Ducky.
Unless you meant in your "Marxist Economics 101" course for the brain dead ... then you'd be right, I suppose.
Waylon
you know facts can get in the way
we all know the minimum wage is raised so that unions can go back to their employers and demand higher wages....if you're paying the unskilled workers more than you owe and we demand
And higher minimum wage has not been correlated to unemployment.
Since you say correlation, I'm sure there's one. Maybe the correlation factor isn't the biggest. But you can read Thomas Sowell and his explanation on how the minimum wage was part of destroying the Black middle class when people decided to hire whites for the same price. And now they hire illegals instead of blacks because of the minimum wage. Watch Food Inc. Perfect explanation of a correlation.
Also France had barely 3% unemployment in the early 1970s and created the minimum wage in 1970. Then it went up like crazy. Granted 1/ The oil crisis hit 2/ The whole unemployment insurance policies took place in 1976 which didn't entice people to go back to work.
The difference between the left and someone like me when they look at economics phenomenon is the following:
- They have their agenda and a vision of society and don't look at the reality of the economic activity, human interactions as far as trading products and services from a science standpoint. Instead they look at it as a conflict between groups that need to be resolved, which means their starting assumption is the conflict.
- I just look at numbers, what seems to work and not work. And I started having this attitude because I received an education in economics that was rational, based on charts, curbs, models and numbers in high-school and college, even if teachers in college tried to emphasize the marxist theories, which had -- surprise -- a lot less modeling and a much less mathematician approach. Instead a lot of blah blah on what should be and how it should be, which is not science.
It reflects a major difference of focus between the "left" and the "right":
- The "left" wants life to be perfect, people to love each other, to be in unison in this gigantic collective so they think the economy needs to serve that.
- The "right" wants individuals to work, sustain themselves and their families first. So everything needs to be easier to allow that. Therefore the economy comes first.
I'm using quotes for "left" and "right" because I am sure some Statists on the right, or some collectivist religious people would rather have the first focus.
So it really goes back how one sees human nature. Homo oeconomicus vs Homo reciprocans?
Always, it does, doesn't it...and our schools have failed miserably ..why do you think liberals demean home schoolers?
Debra, very important story, thanks for that. The pigs are at the trough, that is FOR SURE. And we're the trough.
Beamish, :-) like you need vindication!?
FB, it's that 'perfection' utopia thing the left's in love with which has created all the laws which are denying our freedoms. If ONE PERSON has a problem, there must be a law under which even thinking people need to suffer.
I remember seeing a hole in the sidewalk in Paris...nothing around it but a little yellow tape...no signs, no margin of many feet around it, they just figure we're adults and won't JUMP IN, you know? that made an impression on me.
Elbro's link is too important not to post some of it here (thanks, Elbro)!
"The campaign to raise the minimum wage will have little positive impact on the lives of poor people. Rather, it is a political measure that plays to a misunderstanding of the impact of higher minimum wages. The future of the American economy depends on a correct understanding of the causes of prosperity. For too long, attempts to relieve poverty have been misguided. To lift people out of poverty, we need a system that maximizes opportunities for economic well-being of low-skilled workers. Raising the minimum wage is a wrong-headed solution that will deprive young, poor Americans of an opportunity to improve their economic situation.
Reed Garfield
Senior Economist"
FrogBurger, I should finish my sidewalk story with my thought that it's not so much the hole and not falling in but that the French don't 'over law' everything because it's very difficult to sue for pain/damages in France...I know that to be true...and, so, a much healthier society in that manner, less costs because of suits, etc. Germany, too.
That's an interesting article.
Not sure whether it proves right-leaning folks are necessarily smarter. There are lots of really intelligent people who will come to amazingly wrong conclusions.
This does indicate to me that those who tend to think critically are more likely to be conservative/libertarian in their mindset.
After the recent Pres. election, I was dismayed at seeing interviews of liberal/Democrat/? people who had no clue what their candidate actually stood for. And they didn't really care because he promised positive "change" in our economy and health care system and society in general.
The "left" plays strongly to emotion.
Don't want O to be in charge of things? You must be racist.
Don't like the idea of socialized medicine? You must really hate your kids/grandma/disabled neighbor...
Don't want the govt to jump in and bail out floundering banks and businesses? You must really be selfish to not want people to have jobs.
Don't like the idea of govt. regulation of the environment and population? You must not care about the condition of the planet and what kind of mess we leave for our great-grandkids to have to clean up.
Anti-abortion? You're a woman hater.
See?
Emotions get fired up before the intellect even kicks in. And, those who have not bee taught to subject emotion to reason (preferably under the direction of the Holy Spirit) will naturally gravitate toward a group that keeps them hopping from one emotionally charged issue to another without them ever being able to articulate a rational explanation for their position.
H
Z, I'd put that on the laissez faire (j'm'en foutiste) attitude of the French. A bit like when the Germans came and they were drinking wine.
The French don't overlaw everything? Not sure about that. The French Statists overlaw everything betweens the individual and the government.
Hilarious!
That leftists don't understand economics comes as no surprise whatsoever.
I'm not surprised by the stats because it's evident by the behavior of the left that they react emotionally before they think about the consequences of their decisions.
There is an important difference between intellectualism and merely parroting the things you once heard a communist professor say. Communism had its chance; it was a dismal failure at every place where it was attempted. When people continue to herald the genius of Karl Marx, Saul Alinsky, Noam Chomsky, and far too many other eggheads, they simply demonstrate how un-intellectual they really are. If we begin to make a list of all the amazing accomplishments of Mr. Alinsky changing the life of African Americans in ghettoes, it will be a short list indeed. In the first place, it never occurs to these people that communist ideology is a waste of our time; it is a failed socio-political system; it is time to go on.
But these communists DO know this. That's why they keep trying to hide communism as "progressivism." It is no more than lipstick on a pig. We know it, and they know it.
If that isn’t bad enough, they wish to belittle truly intelligent men like Thomas Sowell because he is a common sense conservative, even though we really do know and understand that they object to him because he is a black man. It might be different if he was also a homosexual, and this is the dynamic of leftist thought. It is difficult to find many instances where Ducky bantered with anyone about differences in their ideas; he would rather engage in name calling and belittling others who —as it turns out —are light years ahead of Ducky in intellectual capacity. As Z points out in this article, conservatives do get it. Leftists have no clue. And yes, (begrudgingly, I admit) Beamish was correct all along.
Heather.."SEE?" This is the mantra of my blog...I'm glad you agree.
ANYTHING we say we get branded with an insulting term..it's Saul Alinsky in action. And they may not be less smart but they sure didn't do well in this economist's survey, huH?
FrogBurger, oh, no....living in France on a daily basis I saw far fewer laws. A friend broke her wrist falling on a mat that should have been glued down in front of a beauty salon in paris; she couldn't take a lawyer to do the case for weeks! They're much less law-happy there....that's my experience, anyway.
Maybe on the gov't level, you're right, but it seemed to me that the French can let things slide...nobody's happy to sue.
Also, I saw cops walk on the Champs Elysee and approach a guitar player sitting on the ground and KICk his case as if "OPEN, PLEASE"....no warrant, no nothing...just to make SURE no bomb, etc.'s inside. Maybe that's not very free for the guitar player but it kept US FREE!
Mustang, what a fantastic comment...you ought to POST THAT! Thank you...
and yes, the communists know this...watching videos of Obama's buddies promising COMPLETE CHANGE, AMERICA WON"T BE THE SAME types of comments is chilling because we know which way they want to go. And people LISTEN!!!
And they may not be less smart but they sure didn't do well in this economist's survey, huH?
No argument there.
I think it is a good example of the difference between simply having a head full of information and actually knowing how to put that information to good use.
H
Z you're right for private matters. But when you run a biz like I did with my dad and are dealing with gov, there are plenty of laws, regulations, forms, paperwork. Way more than in the US.
Communism had its chance; it was a dismal failure at every place where it was attempted.
Of course it's a failure. The core premise is "there is no god other than almighty man".
Atheistic humanism is the ultimate end of what Adam started in the Garden. Communist society is the satanically-inspired "man-as-god antithesis of Christ's kingdom.
H
Hey, everybody!..Our friend and fellow blogger HEIDIANNE sent me an email from a government building she was at this morning....I thought you'd enjoy it:
She wrote this:
"not all government employees are stupid...
overheard walking into the building from a maintenance worker:
"idiot. he's blaming it all on bush. still. does he think we're all new here?"
it was 20 minutes ago and I'm still giggling..."
I had to laugh!
Heather....what you describe reminds me that 'book smart' isn't always as good or helpful as 'street smart', right? You can know a LOT and know very little, or you can know very little from school and survive quite well!
FrogBurg...I see what you mean. Yes, I do remember that about businesses; a good French friend of ours there, he lived upstairs with an American wife, was so eager to get out of France so he could keep more of what he had and have less snobbism "quelle ecole?" and GET ON WITH HIS LIFE. He was in an administrative/consultant position with Alain Ducasse..and I think he's still working for him, but whatever he's doing, he's happily in CHICAGO!
RE Heidianne's little morning observation, People are waking up! (sorry about the tease to gov't workers..she's generalizing, of course!)
Heather....what you describe reminds me that 'book smart' isn't always as good or helpful as 'street smart', right? You can know a LOT and know very little, or you can know very little from school and survive quite well!
Definitely.
H
Miss Heather, I must disagree with you on your statement "There are lots of really intelligent people who will come to amazingly wrong conclusions."
If a person is truly intelligent then when confronted with facts and information, he (or she) must base his opinion on those facts and information and NOT emotion. If a person, confronted with all evidence to the contrary, still spouts an opinion that is progressive (emotional) in nature, then that person is not intelligent. That person may have indications of intelligence, but those indications will be purely anectdotal.
Miss Z, Momma sent me this link and said that I would enjoy it. She was right. Mr. Beamish, those who are right need no vindication.
OH! Mr. (?) Ducky, haven't you ever learned that "stinky cheese" is the most sophisticated, developed and intricate sort of cheese?
-Momma's Fred
we are actively creating a country of idiots. we do not educate our populace, we indoctrinate them. anyone who dares to speak against that indoctrination project is ridiculed, ostracized and marginialized.
we are at a tipping point for our country. we MUST educate all whom are within each of our spheres so that they can understand make critical choices. we can no longer continue to shy, or worry about offending anyone.
z, it is not "mean" to the democrats to point out where they are not using their brains. it's called being a responsible citizen. keep it up!
and, yes, i was speaking generally...
Z, asking the average voter to inform themselves is like trying to cut the ocean with a knife. A mighty slash, a little splash and then you can't see any results at all.
But, we keep trying don't we? Gotta keep trying.
Froggy, are you going to say that the formulation of those questions wasn't a polemic with an agenda?
It's a Libertarian screed which reduces complicated issues to a binary. Good for simpletons.
Meanwhile, enjoy the twilight of Western capitalism. You Randoids have worked hard to bring it about.
Momma's Fred,
I'm okay with respectful disagreement. From a strictly human perspective, I have no argument with what you've said. It certainly does appear that someone who cannot adequately separate fact from feeling is not intelligent.
I was actually thinking beyond the socio-political-economic realm, though.
As a Christian, I make a sharp distinction between raw intellectual potential and true wisdom.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Romans 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools
There are astrophysicists and molecular biologists who are able to do complex mathematical calculations that would probably baffle most of us. Yet there are some who will use every ounce of their brain power to try to prove that God doesn't exist even as they devote their lives to studying the universe He created.
These people are intelligent. We might look at them and be amazed at their mental ability.
God says they are fools because they won't humble themselves and acknowledge Who He is.
H
"Meanwhile, enjoy the twilight of Western capitalism. You Randoids have worked hard to bring it about."
Typical leftist rant.
Would you say that the Fed injecting money to support the stock market and printing money for it is the free market?
According to me, it's not. It's more government working with the banks and the elite.
So the system is taking not because of free market but quite the opposite.
Keep trying Ducky.
And I'm not binary. You're the one who sees life through class warfare, rich vs poor. I see life through individuals, not groups.
Your statement itself simplifies my explanation.
Shallow high-school intellect again.
Stick to films ducky. Mastering light is not complex. It's just light. It's stable.
When you have to deal with more complex things, you seem lost. Your intellect reaches a threshold.
Hi, Momma's Fred, honey! So glad to have you here.
GREAT comments....and CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION!
Your Momma, Heidianne (the lucky lady!)says "we are creating a country of idiots"...she sure didn't 'create an idiot' in YOU and well show knows it! xxxx come back soon!
Ducky, YOU CRACK ME UP!
You don't like the outcome so this economist has AN AGENDA? Do you know how kinda silly you sound? :-)
Hi, GM...thanks for coming by...yes, we MUST keep trying!!
Wish I could say I'd have scored well on an econ exam but I'm afraid I'm a total ignoramus about such things. And I'm not a liberal. Sigh.
Faith,
We don't know each other, but it appears you have a pretty decent grasp of God's economy.
H
Great illustration Debra's Diary!
It's painful! The answers are so clear, obvious and logical. No reason to miss one of them.
Correction, Ducky: higher minimum wage has long been cleanly tied to more unemployment for the least skilled. And, no, the survey did not ask "true or false" but "agree or disagree" and it allowed a liberal contingency to still count correct.
This is a real problem - having ignorati like this turned loose alone in the voting booth, thinking a bond issue is "just money we owe to ourselves."
Funny, the Marxist likes to spout off about issues in terms of economics, but they know so little about it.
Never confuse intelligence for wisdom.
Deborah, isn't it awful? Every day, things get worse and worse ......ignorati, indeed.
xx
Thank you for the nice comment, Heather. I've appreciated your grasp of Christian truth as well.
Miss Heather, I do not mean to be obtuse or argumentative. I completely agree with your redirect to a debate of wisdom and folly. However, I was addressing your comments on intellect and not taking into consideration wisdom. Wisdom is something that even the least "intelligent" among us can abound in.
In fact, Momma often says that children and imbeciles are "the most wise among us because they don't over think everything." I still have not decided if i agree with her, but the OT does tell us that "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them." (Isaiah 11:6).
And in the NT both Mark and Luke recorded Jesus' words when he said "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:15 & Luke 18:17). So perhaps Momma is right (AGAIN, as ever).
I will reiterate my disagreement with what you originally wrote pertaining to 'intelligence' and seemed to continue with this statement: "I was actually thinking beyond the socio-political-economic realm, though." I would challenge you to explain how either intelligence or wisdom have anything whatsoever to do with one's socio-political-economic realm. Aside from the obvious (at least to Mr. Beamish and me) impossibility of a person who is intelligent to embrace a leftist/progressive philosophy.
Miss Z, thank you so much. Momma is responsible for most of my education thus far (did you know she homeschooled all of us until high school?) and it is really a tribute to her that all of us graduated with such high honors. I'm very proud to be her daughter; I learn something from Momma everyday. And I learn something from everyone here everytime I read this blog (I do often, I will try to remember to comment more).
Miss Faith, one does not have to be educated in economics in order to have an instinctual understanding of how economics works. From what I see, many people - especially those who are uneducated - get fearful because of that word. But simply apply the questions asked in the survey to your own sphere - family (including extended), neighborhood, community. When you do that, I believe you will see you DO understand the questions and can answer them logically and critically.
-Momma's Fred
How absurd. "Proof that REPUBLICANS ARE SMARTER...".
Currently Republicans are being lead and "schooled" by Democrats.
This makes Republicans "smarter"?
One day if not too late, Republicans will wake up and learn how to manipulate and herd the masses by fake promises of entitlement and guarrantee's of a sloth lifestyle.
If you argue with an idiot, they are not the one lacking intellect at that moment. A little realization here. It's far better to drag a moron around on a leash than to try and debate with them.
BigEMtn
I would challenge you to explain how either intelligence or wisdom have anything whatsoever to do with one's socio-political-economic realm. Aside from the obvious (at least to Mr. Beamish and me) impossibility of a person who is intelligent to embrace a leftist/progressive philosophy.
Momma's Fred,
Scripture is clear that true wisdom comes from God.
In some (possibly a majority of) cases of "leftist idiocy", the apparent intellectual blindness is directly related to a spiritual deadness and need for conversion. Christians who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit may be tempted to call a person "unintelligent" rather than recognize the potential spiritual deception.
If someone sits in a dark room because he has never been exposed to electrical lighting and does not make proper use of the switch, does it make him stupid or simply ignorant?
If that someone to whom electric lighting is a brand-new concept acts suspicious and balks when shown the reality, does it necessarily mean that person is a non-thinking idiot who deserves to be scoffed at?
Someone who's been blessed with modern conveniences all his life might look at the guy in the room and assume he just is too stupid to understand something that every 2 year old "ought" to be able to figure out.
I'm okay with objectively measuring IQ and then comparing that to a sector of population. Perhaps "right" thinkers do tend to be more intelligent. What I cannot do is hold to the belief that all people who gravitate to the "left" are just morons who don't have two brain cells to rub together.
Critical thought process does not come naturally to most people and our culture has done little to encourage children to logically think their way through important issues.
Those who are currently stuck in an illogical way of thinking because of left-leaning indoctrination are not always there simply because they are not intelligent.
Momma's Fred,
It absolutely breaks my heart to see how so many parents simply don't care about the well-being of their children.
I appreciate that you are a thinker and that your parents seem to have taken seriously their obligation to the Lord to train you well. In this, you have been blessed far beyond the reality of many, many young people in our country.
Your respectful and thoughtful interaction here is to their credit.
In an attempt to reduce and clarify my position, I want to just say:
There is a difference between
"not intelligent" (incapable of formulating cohesive thoughts--no hope of ever improving),
intelligence that exists but is twisted by spiritual blindness
intelligence that exists but has not been properly exercised (a huge problem within our society and educational system, as many children grow into young adults who were never taught to control emotional outbursts or think through problems.)
and
God-enlightened intelligence (of any level, which includes true wisdom)
One who illogically gravitates toward liberal/leftist way of thinking could potentially fall into any one of the first 3 categories.
"One day if not too late, Republicans will wake up and learn how to manipulate and herd the masses by fake promises of entitlement and guarrantee's of a sloth lifestyle."
The right should have learned by now, they've had excellent teachers in the left, that's for sure.
please, just read the stats...thanks.
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