The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: thundley4 on June 09, 2010, 03:39:19 PM
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Dark (1000+ posts) Tue Jun-08-10 06:21 PM
Original message
WSJ: "Self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics"
This has got to be the worst piece of trash I've read in a while.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604...
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.
Zogby researcher Zeljka Buturovic and I considered the 4,835 respondents' (all American adults) answers to eight survey questions about basic economics. We also asked the respondents about their political leanings: progressive/very liberal; liberal; moderate; conservative; very conservative; and libertarian.
Rather than focusing on whether respondents answered a question correctly, we instead looked at whether they answered incorrectly. A response was counted as incorrect only if it was flatly unenlightened.
Consider one of the economic propositions in the December 2008 poll: "Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable." People were asked if they: 1) strongly agree; 2) somewhat agree; 3) somewhat disagree; 4) strongly disagree; 5) are not sure.
Basic economics acknowledges that whatever redeeming features a restriction may have, it increases the cost of production and exchange, making goods and services less affordable. There may be exceptions to the general case, but they would be atypical.
The other 7 questions are even stupider.
Also, 538 (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/06/are-you-smarter-... ) has already debunked the questions as "ambiguous, substanceless, or confusing."
This is PURE BULLSHIT.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8515533
It's a big bonfire, and you can guess the content of most replies.
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Someone actually posted it??
Did someone ever post the article about how kids grow out of socialism?
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I just read that thread. Glad I checked first here. All the DUmmies are 1) in denial, and 2) just badmouth the WSJ. Each reply is the same. Not terribly interesting. This guy says this:
Occulus (1000+ posts) Wed Jun-09-10 04:11 PM
Response to Original message
50. I did very badly in Econ 101- almost failed it
because what I was being taught in Econ 101 did not not NOT agree with the reality I was seeing around me. I was answering test questions based on the reality I saw and not the fictions I was being taught.
Which stands alone. Some other guy with an MBA tries to inject a small amount of sanity into the thread, but he was ignored. Maybe because he said he worked for a large corporation.
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The WSJ might have reported it but did they bash the Zogby (not a conservative firm) researcher who did the study?
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Leftists are able to count to potato and know that 1+1= blue, who would have thought that they knew next to nothing about basic economics.
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Life is hard....
Life is harder if you're stupid....
DUmmies are a textbook example of stupid....
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Let's put a couple of those questions into terms the dummie might understand...
1) Restrictions on cheetos development make cheetos less affordable.
4) Pot price control leads to pot shortages.
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If it doesn't involve kerosene, cinder blocks, and chicken wire, it doesn't deserve study by the primitives.
Now if Economics could be expressed mathematically as Chicken Wire + Cinder Blocks = Bush's Fault, then maybe something of value would sink in.
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The 538 article was written by Nate Silver, who according to Wikipedia, was a blogger for the Daily Kos and continues a lifelong pursuit of baseball and statistics....
His 538.com blog is featured in the New York Times....
Real DUmmie cred, this one.... :mental:
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Leftists are able to count to potato and know that 1+1= blue, who would have thought that they knew next to nothing about basic economics.
:lmao: :rotf: :lmao: :rotf: :lmao: :rotf:
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Interesting to see the question asked but now unexpected. It is somewhat surprising the number of conservative leaning people who get questions wrong, while nowhere near the levels liberal leaning people get, it still seems high to me. But then it is a self-identifying poll and everyone has to start somewhere.
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Also, 538 (http://www.fivethirtyeigh.../2010/06/are-you-smarter-... ) has already debunked the questions as "ambiguous, substanceless, or confusing."
To primitives, knowing how to tie their own shoelaces is "ambiguous, substanceless, and confusing." Economics is, like, numbers and logic and analysis and stuff. If liberals weren't so stupid, you could explain to them why they're complete idiots and they would understand.
.
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If it doesn't involve kerosene, cinder blocks, and chicken wire, it doesn't deserve study by the primitives.
I remember seeing those pictures. I was struck by how small the guy's feet were. :whistling:
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I remember seeing those pictures. I was struck by how small the guy's feet were. :whistling:
So what does the size of his.......oh........ :rotf:....probably true but we can't prove it...his wife lost her purse..