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Post by gailkate on Aug 5, 2011 18:47:18 GMT -5
Came in my inbox today - don't know who actually wrote the lead, but the Pew Research Center is top drawer. Nothing skewed about the questions. I struggled with 2 of them (wonder if the same questions will bother you?) but ended up getting them all right. *This is a terrific and incredibly easy test. And it shows results in a > number of ways. It clearly indicates that the majority of Americans don't > have a clue about what's going on in the world. No wonder our politicians > take such advantage of us. It's astonishing that so many people got less > than half right. These results say that 80% of the (voting) public doesn't > have a clue, and that's pretty scary. > > There are no tricks here - just a simple test to see if you are current on > your information. This is quite good and the results are shocking. > > I believe it was Winston Churchill who opined that " . . . the biggest > argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter > . . ." > > Test your knowledge with 11 questions, then be ready to shudder when you see > how others did! > > **Test your news IQ - Pew Research > Center* pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php
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Post by liriodendron on Aug 5, 2011 22:06:01 GMT -5
Well, I only got 8 of them correct. I'm not surprised that you got them all correct, Gail.
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Post by Nomad-wino on Aug 5, 2011 22:42:28 GMT -5
I got 9 right. A couple I guessed at and was lucky enough to pick the correct answer.
Mike
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Post by doctork on Aug 5, 2011 23:22:29 GMT -5
I got them all right, but then I am a confessed policy junkie, a native of "inside the beltway," aka Washington, DC, and the questions were skewed toward healthcare.
Or at least I thought so, as folks not in healthcare would probably not know the amount the US government spends on Medicare, nor be aware that at least 25% of Americans are obese (and another 30+% are overweight, and Colorado is the leanest state in the nation and the only state with under 20% obesity).
(Former) Coloradans like me know that. And (former) West Virginians know that coal is the US' leading source of electrical energy.
I was surprised that 63% of us know that the Wisconsin brou-ha-ha was over public employees and unions.
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Post by doctork on Aug 5, 2011 23:24:59 GMT -5
Credit should be given to USA Today which, even though often regarded as "newspaper lite," really does cover a wide spectrum of news, easy to read, in an appealing format.
People who live in hotels get USA Today free every morning.
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Post by Jane on Aug 6, 2011 6:30:52 GMT -5
I got them all right, except for some reason the quiz started on question 2, so I was given credit for one question that I didn't answer. I might not have gotten the obese Americans one except that I read K's post first!
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Post by gailkate on Aug 6, 2011 9:24:31 GMT -5
Don't worry, you'd have known Ghaddafi is the leader of Libya, so it wasn't a freebie.
What interests me most is that young people continue to know the least. They know about NCLB (a give-away question) and Facebook (there was a movie), but they're not so sure about Congress or the budget or Boehner, even after most of us have probably had it up-to-here with the debt ceiling brawl.
I wonder how they decide what questions to ask. Some of these seem not all that critical to me, but maybe they're in there as balance to get sort of a baseline. If you could ask different questions, what would they be? Here's one of mine, though I'm not sure how to set up the possible answers.
What countries are threatened by excessive national debt?
I'm wondering about that because it seems to me people don't understand that the global economy is in trouble and has been for years. We caused a lot of the crooked dealings that led to the 2008 crash, but we're not the only ones who got greedy and irresponsible.
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Post by doctork on Aug 6, 2011 11:37:24 GMT -5
I don't think young people really know the least, although they are less informed about the questions on this test. They haven't had time to travel the nation or the globe, and they are less likely to be affected (or see how they are affected) by Congressional actions on Government programs like Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, especially now that they are no longer subject to the draft. And their preferred information sources are tilted toward TV, movies, music and celebrities.
Younger people are well-informed about different kinds of information.
The Pew quiz (as well as US media) is also US-centric; the only question about international events is the Libya/Qaddafi one, and that was high profile news only because we are "fighting" there, that is sending limited efforts that way, plus taking a bully pulpit stand. The countries threatened by excessive debt include Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain - most Americans couldn't even find them on a map let alone express concern about their financial stability.
Interestingly, generous social programs and a paucity of young people underlie those nations' dire financial straits (not military might and rash support of the uber-wealthy). And they are far less likely to be threatened by mortgage crises, since mortgages are less available and much more strictly qualified that the US.
The Corporatocracy is global, but few people of any age understand that.
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Post by liriodendron on Aug 9, 2011 21:02:41 GMT -5
What interests me most is that young people continue to know the least. They know about NCLB (a give-away question) and Facebook (there was a movie), but they're not so sure about Congress or the budget or Boehner, even after most of us have probably had it up-to-here with the debt ceiling brawl. Actually, gk, my 22-year-old son could probably outscore me on any of these quizzes - shoot, he reads The Economist from cover to cover. I'll have to send it to him and see how he does. |
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Post by liriodendron on Aug 9, 2011 21:58:12 GMT -5
Just as I suspected. He got a perfect score. Thankfully he didn't ask how I did.
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Post by gailkate on Aug 9, 2011 23:00:53 GMT -5
I wasn't insulting the moms on this board. The survey analysis showed low ratings for the two youngest age ranges. Obviously there are young people who know current events inside and out - just not enough of them. Another question I'd ask in addition to the international context would be the percentage of undocumented immigrants living in the US, whether they pay taxes, and whether they get soc. sec. and medicare. (Ok, that's 3 questions.  ) |
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Post by doctork on Aug 10, 2011 8:58:30 GMT -5
There is a debate about how many undocumented workers are in the US (between 9 and 16 million are estimates I have read), and unless they are illegally paid cash under the table (a crime committed by their usually legitimate American employers), yes they pay taxes.
No they do not receive Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid or welfare, as one must be a citizen or legal resident - and meet other eligibility requirements - to receive those benefits. They generally are eligible to receive emergency medical care with medical translators who speak their language (at $120 - $150 per hour for translation) as required by federal law.
Such children are eligible for routine vaccines and public education as those are required to be provided by state and federal laws, without discrimination based on country of origin or ethnicity. The kids are more likely to be born in the US anyway (thus citizens) than their parents who are the undocumented workers. It's better for all of us if they receive vaccinations, otherwise citizens are at risk from contagious diseases.
Teachers and doctors do not usually want to be immigration authorities in addition to their other duties, Personally, I took the Hippocratic oath and swore to help the sick without asking for their passport first; I have enough trouble keeping up with medical science and do not need to add immigration law to my CME.
Studies differ on whether undocumented workers are a drain on US society, using more services than they pay for (overall they underutilize, being fearful of being caught). Or alternatively, they are a net plus - paying taxes for benefits they won't receive. I haven't seen any studies that include in the cost/benefit equation the value of lower food prices due to low paid workers.
My impression is undocumented workers are an overall net plus nationwide, though individual border states (CA, AZ, TX, maybe FL) sustain a net drain. The porous borders are definitely a security threat, but the threat is not low paid fruit/vegetable pickers.
The US is one of the few countries that bases citizenship on place of birth ("jus solis" is the term I think, but IANAL) rather than citizenship of the parents ("jus sanguis"). Our constitution is clear on the matter - if you are born in the US, or to US parent(s) abroad, you're a US citizen, and entitled to the benefits thereof.
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Post by gailkate on Aug 10, 2011 9:31:49 GMT -5
I suspect most of us know these facts (although I'm interested in your view as a doc), but I'm not sure most people in a Pew survey would be able to answer them. We hear the loudest voices - people like Lou Dobbs in the media and politicians like Tom Tancredo - but the facts tend to be muted. On the same topic, far lefties have been angered at Obama's deportation rate, because it was no lower than Bush's. But his emphasis has been on deporting violent criminals, with an end to the kind of raids that broke up families who were scraping together an income in slaughterhouses and as farm laborers. We saw quite a bit of that in MN, and people were shocked by the inhumane tactics. I don't think anyone is disturbed by deportation of criminals, so long as that doesn't mean parking tickets or driving while brown. www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/11/barack-obama/obama-says-deportation-criminals-70-percent-under-/ |
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Post by doctork on Aug 10, 2011 20:48:50 GMT -5
Obama has deported many more illegal immigrants than Bush (I saw the numners but can't recall them off hand - several hundred thousand more), and if it has focused on violent criminals, that's news to me. I am remembering that raid he ordered conducted in Bellingham, punishing the good employer who had done due diligence, but could not determine that the workers used fake SS numbers.
And here in Arizona, there are way too many violent criminals who are illegal, who cross the border at will, and kill any innocent ranchers who get in their way.. And they are armed with weapons supplied by the DEA!
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Post by gailkate on Aug 10, 2011 23:46:12 GMT -5
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Post by doctork on Aug 11, 2011 15:37:49 GMT -5
May well have been the CSM article, as I do read it. But half of deportees are not criminals by those stats, though I've nothing against deporting those who are found to have committed "minor traffic violations" that would deserve only a ticket - if there were not the original offense offense of entering the US illegally.
I do wish some fair immigration policy would be worked out so we would not waste resources on this issue, when there are bigger ones to deal with.
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