Ignoramous Ginormous

An article in Newsweek this week gives a quiz about American government, rights, history and civics. Readers could answer questions. Also, the quiz had already been given to 1000 people, so readers could see how what percent got the answers right and wrong. My wife and I took the test. Admittedly, I didn’t do great on it. Overall, according to Newsweek, 38% of people who took the quiz failed.

A few of the questions where we did poorly:

• Who was president during WWI? 20% correct. 80% incorrect.
• What is the economic system in the US? 33% correct. 67% incorrect.
• What is the Supreme law of the land? 30% correct. 70% incorrect.
• How many amendments does the Constitution have? 6% correct. 94% incorrect.
• The House of Representatives has how many voting members? 14% correct. 86% incorrect.

This quiz included an article by Andrew Romano that focused on our ignorance. If it’s any reprieve, the author suggested that this hasn’t varied much over the last 60 years. But the countries of Britain, Denmark, and Finland clobbered the US on a test regarding international affairs. I think it’s hard to say the US versus any of these countries is necessarily an apple to apples comparison, and the article points that out. These are much smaller countries, don’t have Mexico south of them, the population is a little more homogeneous, and so on. But, these are also countries with advanced economies and high standards of living, which should cause us concern.

But the article lists possible reasons for our…lack of knowledge.

• Decentralized educational system.
• Complex political system with several layers of government.
• Income inequality. The top 400 households make more than the bottom 60% combined.

When the quiz focused on better earners, the results were much better. 75% of those earning $100k or more passed.

The article went on to discuss how our ignorance can manifest itself. In terms of balancing the budget, many Americans want smaller government, but also oppose cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Most serious economists know that balancing the budget and paying down the debt long term requires cuts to entitlements and the military. But most Americans think that to balance the budget we need to cut government waste. If you’re read my blog to this point, you know which politicians talk about cutting government waste, probably the more Bachmann-esque type of politician. By being able to talk about cutting “waste”, politicians can pander to people who don’t have a clue that entitlement and defense spending make up about 2/3 of federal spending.

The reality is, and I’ve expressed this to my federal politicians, that we need to cut military and entitlement spending. These together make up about 2/3 of the overall budget. Unfortunately they only seem to be able to hear the people that will be impacted by cutting aid to the poor. To be sure, there is a difference between aid to the poor, and entitlements.

Point of the story: the US is in for a tough time balancing its budget in a competitive world while our citizens aren’t plugged in to reality. Whether its apathy or poor education, it’s not acceptable.