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US officials flunk test of US history, civics, economics
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bucheon bum



Joined: 16 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

T-J wrote:
Question 29 is the one I have a problem with.

The whole "without directly paying for it" concept is a fallacy and contributer to our entitlement mentality. IMHO. How did you answer, and why.


I answered A for question 33 gopher. I glossed over the debt and deficit bit. Now I see how I got it wrong.

And question 29 is the public goods question that I was complaining about T-J.

I think the best definition of a "public good" is a benefit that cannot be denied to anyone (such as security, public education, etc).

The answer is stupid because you are directly paying for it through taxes, although our gov't leaders determine how that money is spent. I'd still say it could be construed as "direct" spending.
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bucheon bum



Joined: 16 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

double post.

Last edited by bucheon bum on Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Jandar



Joined: 11 Jun 2008

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

samcheokguy wrote:
93% missed two questions. The questions were VERY right-wing bias, for example they argued the Federal Govt does NOT have the right to have an income tax.


Yep that one got me too.

Though it's not specific congress can levi taxes it doesn't specify income tax.

When they say Federal Government that should include all three branches.

So the test makers suck.

I thought the Philosophy question was out of place in he test also.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Re: "the public good." My understanding it derives from republican thought. Disinterested govt and the common welfare, etc. Interstate commerce, for example.

bucheon bum wrote:
I answered A for question 33 gopher. I glossed over the debt and deficit bit. Now I see how I got it wrong.


I answered A as well and A still looks good to me now. Would you mind talking me through this one step by step?
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Kuros



Joined: 27 Apr 2004

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
Re: "the public good." My understanding it derives from republican thought. Disinterested govt and the common welfare, etc. Interstate commerce, for example.

bucheon bum wrote:
I answered A for question 33 gopher. I glossed over the debt and deficit bit. Now I see how I got it wrong.


I answered A as well and A still looks good to me now. Would you mind talking me through this one step by step?


Debt is total liabilities, and deficit is how much in the red you are for that year.

Thus, the total national debt is $10trillion, but the deficit for this year is something under $500billion. Clinton eliminated the deficit in the late 90s but did not come close to eliminating the debt.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes. I see. Thank you, Kuros.

Another example of my reading too much into a question. If govts spend only what they tax, then over time, provided this includes debt servicing, this tends to create debt-free govts, too, no?
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nathanrutledge



Joined: 01 May 2008
Location: Marakesh

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jandar wrote:
samcheokguy wrote:
93% missed two questions. The questions were VERY right-wing bias, for example they argued the Federal Govt does NOT have the right to have an income tax.


Yep that one got me too.

Though it's not specific congress can levi taxes it doesn't specify income tax.

When they say Federal Government that should include all three branches.

So the test makers suck.

I thought the Philosophy question was out of place in he test also.


Income tax is a power of the federal government, but I believe what the question was asking was what is a power that ONLY the federal government has, because the other 3 answers are concurrent powers.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nathanrutledge wrote:
Income tax is a power of the federal government, but I believe what the question was asking was what is a power that ONLY the federal government has, because the other 3 answers are concurrent powers.


Question 9, then, should read...

Quote:
Under [o]ur Constitution, some powers belong [exclusively] to the federal government. What is one [of these exclusive] power[s] of the federal government?
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nathanrutledge



Joined: 01 May 2008
Location: Marakesh

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
nathanrutledge wrote:
Income tax is a power of the federal government, but I believe what the question was asking was what is a power that ONLY the federal government has, because the other 3 answers are concurrent powers.


Question 9, then, should read...

Quote:
Under [o]ur Constitution, some powers belong [exclusively] to the federal government. What is one [of these exclusive] power[s] of the federal government?


Yes, yes it should. Laughing Looking at the questions, the ones that people had problems with make sense. The public good question was poorly worded, the government spending/tax question was akward (the key word in that whole question being IF), as well as some others. Reading the article, it seems that the problem isn't that people can't answer awkwardly constructed questions, its that the can't answer the basic factual questions at the front of the quiz. Now THAT's scary.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Being made out to be "scary," certainly. But this still bothers me and smacks of antiAmerican spin...

Quote:
"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics...


Based on my reading the following political memoirs, arranged chronologically, by administration, postwar to the present (and this is a comprehensive list of those I consider worth reading; if it is not here, then I do not recommend it), I think the person who wrote this does not know what s/he is talking about.

Quote:
Truman Administation
D. Acheson, Present at the Creation

Eisenhower Administration
A. Dulles, Craft of Intelligence
D. Eisenhower, White House Years: Mandate for Change
D. Eisenhower, White House Years: Waging Peace

JFK Administration
A. Schlesinger, Jr., Thousand Days

LBJ Administration
C. Clifford, Counsel to the President
R. McNamara, In Retrospect

Nixon Administration
W. Bundy, Tangled Web
H. Kissinger, White House Years

Reagan Administration
R. Gates, From the Shadows

H.W. Bush Administration
G.H.W. Bush and B. Scowcroft, World Transformed

Clinton Administration
B. Clinton, My Life
R. Holbrooke, To End a War
G. Stephanopoulos, All Too Human

W. Bush Administration
G. Tenet, Center of the Storm


Multiple-choice tests or not, agree with their politics or not, these people show a solid grasp of the American experience and world affairs in their writing.
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bucheon bum



Joined: 16 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
Re: "the public good." My understanding it derives from republican thought. Disinterested govt and the common welfare,


The background is a bit more academic than that. I first heard the term when I had to read excerpts of Mancur Olson's The Logic of Collective Actions, Public Goods, and the Theory of Groups. I believe he was a Harvard economist, and apparently the term was initially coined by an economist (at least according to Wikipedia).
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nathanrutledge



Joined: 01 May 2008
Location: Marakesh

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gopher wrote:
Being made out to be "scary," certainly. But this still bothers me and smacks of antiAmerican spin...

Quote:
"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics...


Based on my reading the following political memoirs, arranged chronologically, by administration, postwar to the present (and this is a comprehensive list of those I consider worth reading; if it is not here, then I do not recommend it), I think the person who wrote this does not know what s/he is talking about.

Quote:
Truman Administation
D. Acheson, Present at the Creation

Eisenhower Administration
A. Dulles, Craft of Intelligence
D. Eisenhower, White House Years: Mandate for Change
D. Eisenhower, White House Years: Waging Peace

JFK Administration
A. Schlesinger, Jr., Thousand Days

LBJ Administration
C. Clifford, Counsel to the President
R. McNamara, In Retrospect

Nixon Administration
W. Bundy, Tangled Web
H. Kissinger, White House Years

Reagan Administration
R. Gates, From the Shadows

H.W. Bush Administration
G.H.W. Bush and B. Scowcroft, World Transformed

Clinton Administration
B. Clinton, My Life
R. Holbrooke, To End a War
G. Stephanopoulos, All Too Human

W. Bush Administration
G. Tenet, Center of the Storm


Multiple-choice tests or not, agree with their politics or not, these people show a solid grasp of the American experience and world affairs in their writing.


I agree with that. I do find it notable that there is no book about Ford or Carter in that list (There will not be Soviet domination under a Ford Administration?). The Dean Acheson book is very well done, IMO, as is the Dulles book on Eisenhower.
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Gopher



Joined: 04 Jun 2005

PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nothing noteworthy on the Ford Administration. I have an excellent documentary on the fall of Cambodia and the fall of Saigon, however. See H. Kissinger's other two volumes -- never of much interest to me. The first one, the one I mention, above, describes Chile, China, the Middle East, Soviet Russia, etc. under R. Nixon's first administration. Far more interesting to me.

As far as the Carter Administration goes, R. Gates deals with those years, too, although he more properly belongs in the Reagan Administration. I also highly recommend C. Beckwith's Delta Force, not only on the unit and its creation, but especially on the failed Iranian mission. But it does not seem to belong in the same league as those I ref, above. I also excluded several other CIA memoirs, lower-level officers, in LBJ through Clinton's administrations, for the same reason.
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Bigfeet



Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....

PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You answered 30 out of 33 correctly � 90.91 %
Average score for this quiz during November: 77.9%
Average score: 77.9%
Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address
Question #13 - E. certain permanent moral and political truths are accessible to human reason
Question #33 - D. tax per person equals government spending per person



Man, that waz pretty hard. Lucky it wasn't an ethics quiz, I flunked that in school. Razz
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kotakji



Joined: 23 Oct 2006

PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

31 outta 33
Missed #8 (had no clue what FDR did with the supreme court) and embarrassingly enough #10 I couldnt remember if religion became before right to bare arms or not.

It should be noted that their survey doesnt distinguish between top elected officials and the assistant superintendent of basket weaving jobs that fill up the later pages of our ballots. In fact it just takes it on faith that you marked the bubble correctly stating you once held an elected position. Does hall monitor count?


Last edited by kotakji on Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:34 pm; edited 1 time in total
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