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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (80215)	6/9/2010 1:22:50 PM
From: FJB	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

Liberals fail at economics Posted by Jeffrey Ellis Jun 9 This WSJ article summarizes the findings of a Zogby International survey given to almost 5,000 adults. The survey asked eight basic questions about economics, and also asked the respondents to characterize their political leanings: progressive/very liberal, liberal, moderate, conservative, very conservative, and libertarian. For each question, respondents were asked if they strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree, or are not sure. A question was only counted wrong (or “unenlightened,” as the authors put it) in cases where a respondent strongly or somewhat disagreed when in fact they should have agreed, or vice-versa. A response of “not sure” was not counted as unenlightened. Here are the eight questions which were asked. 1. Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable (unenlightened answer: disagree). 2. Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer: disagree). 3. Overall, the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer: disagree). 4. Rent control leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer: disagree). 5. A company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened answer: agree). 6. Third World workers working for American companies overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer: agree). 7. Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer: agree). 8. Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer: disagree). The results? From best to worst, here’s the average number of questions missed, by political orientation: * Very conservative: 1.3 * Libertarian: 1.38 * Conservative: 1.67 * Moderate: 3.67 * Liberal: 4.69 * Progressive/very liberal: 5.26 This is particularly frightening, given that it’s the progressives/liberals who think they are smart enough to centrally plan the economy. HT to Cafe Hayek jeffreyellis.org (by way of Tim Fowler)