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To: tejek who wrote (616616)	6/19/2011 4:00:09 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1585465

Tell us about Paul Revere

To: tejek who wrote (616616)	6/19/2011 7:24:05 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1585465

Do Liberals Understand Economics Better Than Conservatives?Do Liberals Understand Economics Better Than Conservatives? By Jeff Harding,on June 9th,2010 The answer to the question is no,according to a study conducted by Dan Klein,an econ professor at George Mason University and Dr. Zeljka Buturovic of Zogby International. This from the Wall Street Journal: 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. Therefore,we counted as incorrect responses of “somewhat disagree”and “strongly disagree.”This treatment gives leeway for those who think the question is ambiguous or half right and half wrong. They would likely answer “not sure,”which we do not count as incorrect. In this case, percentage of conservatives answering incorrectly was 22.3%,very conservatives 17.6% and libertarians 15.7%. But the percentage of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly was 67.6% and liberals 60.1%. The pattern was not an anomaly. The other questions were:1) Mandatory licensing of professional services increases the prices of those services (unenlightened answer:disagree). 2) Overall,the standard of living is higher today than it was 30 years ago (unenlightened answer:disagree). 3) Rent control leads to housing shortages (unenlightened answer:disagree). 4) A company with the largest market share is a monopoly (unenlightened answer:agree). 5) Third World workers working for American companies overseas are being exploited (unenlightened answer:agree). 6) Free trade leads to unemployment (unenlightened answer:agree). 7) Minimum wage laws raise unemployment (unenlightened answer:disagree). 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. To be sure,none of the eight questions specifically challenge the political sensibilities of conservatives and libertarians. Still,not all of the eight questions are tied directly to left-wing concerns about inequality and redistribution. In particular,the questions about mandatory licensing,the standard of living,the definition of monopoly,and free trade do not specifically challenge leftist sensibilities. Yet on every question the left did much worse. On the monopoly question,the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (31%) was more than twice that of conservatives (13%) and more than four times that of libertarians (7%). On the question about living standards,the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (61%) was more than four times that of conservatives (13%) and almost three times that of libertarians (21%). The survey also asked about party affiliation. Those responding Democratic averaged 4.59 incorrect answers. Republicans averaged 1.61 incorrect,and Libertarians 1.26 incorrect. Adam Smith described political economy as “a branch of the science of a statesman or legislator.”Governmental power joined with wrongheadedness is something terrible,but all too common. Realizing that many of our leaders and their constituents are economically unenlightened sheds light on the troubles that surround us. dailycapitalist.com

To: tejek who wrote (616616)	6/19/2011 7:25:33 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1585465

NYT's Blow: Republicans Better Informed Than Blacks and Hispanics By Noel Sheppard \| October 02, 2010 \| 13:23 25Share Change font size: A \| A Here's something you wouldn't expect to read in the New York Times: Republicans are better informed about political issues than blacks, Hispanics, and young people. "Big-city liberals and their blogging buddies love to paint Tea Partiers as yokels with incoherent candidates and language-mauling signs," began Charles Blow's column Saturday. "The unpleasant fact that these liberals rarely mention, and may not know, is that large swaths of the Democratic base, groups they need to vote in droves next month - blacks, Hispanics and young people - are far less civically literate than their conservative counterparts." That was just the beginning of the surprises in Blow's "What's Dumb, Really?": How can they motivate these voters to help Democrats maintain their Congressional majorities when, according to a poll released this week by the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of blacks, 42 percent of Hispanics and 35 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 years old don't even know that Democrats have a majority in the House? It's sad. Pathetic, really. But it's a political reality. (Only 71 percent of Democrats overall knew that Democrats had a majority in the House. By comparison, 82 percent of Republicans knew it.) [...] In the Pew poll, 64 percent of Hispanics, 51 percent of young adults and 45 percent of blacks could not name Biden as the vice president. (Only 35 percent of Republicans got it wrong.) Just remember that the next time some so-called journalist calls Tea Party members uneducated fools. As for Blow, this isn't the first time he's imparted some sanity on the pages of the Gray Lady. In fact, he's penned a number of surprises recently: Read more: newsbusters.org

To: tejek who wrote (616616)	6/19/2011 7:27:41 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1585465

Republicans Better Informed James Joyner · Wednesday, October 28, 2009 · 29 Comments A new Pew survey shows a rather steep “Partisan Knowledge Gap,” with Republicans and Independents generally better informed than Democrats. Mary Katharine Ham finds this quite amusing and also notes that, “if the polling had gone the other way, the NYT would shout it from the rooftops.” She provides examples of the mainstream press doing just that on previous occasions. We’d need a more wide-ranging set of questions and more replication over time to make any definitive conclusions about the relative knowledge of various partisans. This does, however, seem to belie the recent White House-approved meme that Fox News and its ilk aren’t really news outlets. The fact of the matter is — and this has been borne out over time — that people who listen to Rush Limbaugh or watch Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity are among the best informed people out there. It’s not that those hosts are unbiased — Lord knows, they are — but because they draw an audience that’s much more interested in the news than most Americans. CNN’s current business model is straight news, with the opinion shows pushed to their sister HLN. But people actually watch Fox. outsidethebeltway.com