So here is the comment I left at the MR thread:

I got a 32/33; missed #24 on foreign policy. I thought there was some arcane provision in the Constitution that the state governments had to approve a new treaty or something under odd circumstances, but I think in retrospect I'm getting it mixed up with something else. (Maybe election of senators?)

I agree with the negative comments above. It doesn't bother me that a bunch of politicians (or average Americans for that matter) scored poorly on this test, because it really is more about "have you read the same books I have?" as opposed to "do you understand US history?"

The ones that jumped out at me as bad questions (and note I'm not including the one I missed!):

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9) Under Our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
A. Make treaties
B. Levy income taxes
C. Maintain prisons
D. Natural Disaster Aid
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Both (A) and (B) are explicitly true (after amendments). They should have said "as originally written" or something. This is important I think, since they are presumably trying to show how much #()$*#$ the federal government does that is unconstitutional. Well, there's a difference between something not being in there, versus something being included in an amendment process that some people (who often email me!) claim was bogus.


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10) Name one right or freedom guaranteed by the first amendment.
A. Right to bear arms
B. Due process
C. Religion
D. Right to counsel
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This one was hard to answer, because the other questions made it clear they are referring to the Constitution / Bill of Rights as originally written. And as far as I know, an individual state had the power to make all sorts of laws about religion, and the federal government had no power to overturn them. In other words, there is no way that the two official answers for #9 and #10 can be justified. Either they have to mean "as of 1800" or "as of right now," but they aren't consistent.


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27) Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:
A. the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends
B. markets rely upon coercion, whereas government relies upon voluntary compliance with the law
C. more tax revenue can be generated from free enterprise
D. property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system
E. government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers’ money
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I thought this was a ridiculous question. I would be surprised if 80% of the people in my PhD class at NYU would get that one right. This is supposed to be a quiz about American heritage, not about who's read Hayek or Thomas Sowell. I.e. the phrasing in (A) is quite particular to a certain school of thought about markets, and isn't nearly as general a remark as "bureaucrats lack the incentives and expertise to outperform individual entrepreneurs." Also, I think (D) is true!


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29) A flood-control levee (or National Defense) is considered a public good because:
A. citizens value it as much as bread and medicine
B. a resident can benefit from it without directly paying for it
C. government construction contracts increase employment
D. insurance companies cannot afford to replace all houses after a flood
E. government pays for its construction, not citizens
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As others have noted, terrible question. The standard definition of a public good includes, yes, that it is non-excludable, but also that it is non-rival in consumption. I.e. the "answer" (B) above doesn't include that a resident can benefit from it without thereby preventing another resident from benefiting from it.
 

The Blackadder Says:

Your points are well taken (I would add that the question about Socrates didn't seem particularly relevant). However, with the exception of #9, the best answer to each of these questions is pretty easy to determine based on a process of elimination. In question 10, for example, one can have all sorts of quibbles with "Religion" as being a correct answer, but the other options are all clearly false, and so that has to be it.

The same is true for the other questions as well (I realize that, as an anarcho-capitalist, you think that property and contract rights are best enforced through a market system; but you presumably don't think this is *why* markets are superior to central planning, since if it were a purely minimal state would do no better than the Soviet Union).
 

I wrote about this today as well at my blog.

I missed one as well, #8. I took a stab at it, and missed ...

I noted as well that #27 had two possible correct answers (A and D), but A was obviously intended to be the "correct" one.
 

I got four wrong, partly because I am terrible about which amendments of the bill of rights. Secondly I guessed wrong in regards to the economic questions and as you pointed out #9.
 

Oops! I got three wrong:

Question #4 - B. Would slavery be allowed to expand to new territories?
Question #7 - D. Gettysburg Address
Question #18 - A. guarantee women the right to vote in national elections

My only excuse is that I am not an American.
 

I ran into trouble with the final question. From the writings of Murray Rothbard and his inclusion of the essential thoughts of John C Calhoun, I understand that there is a class of tax payers and a class of tax consumers, thus their "correct" answer was totally incompatible with my world view.

Question 30, with regards to governmental intervention in a recession, had me rereading the words a couple of times to make sure that it said would and not should. Since I know that the state is a fan of intervention, I knew that the Keynesian (and Hayekian [thank you Dr. Huerta de Soto for alerting me to this weakness of the good doctor]) response would be the most likely to be "correct," and has been implemented most consistently since the era of the "weak" presidents has passed.

I concur with the other nits that have been picked, but I held my nose and picked the most likely correct answer. 32 out of 33 isn't too bad. However, the memories of answering in a particular manner, regardless of objective correctness brought back many bad memories of K-12 education. I am fond of Samuel Clemens alter ego's quote about not letting education get in the way of your learning. Sometimes to pass a test, we have to not let our learning get in the way of our reeducation.
 

I took the stupid test last week and was so disgusted seeing I got 5 wrong that I considered applying for a Green Card and giving USA as country of origin.

I rationalize it by calling the test stupid and not me. I learned that trick from studying the government for the last 8 years.

This blog is asking me to type the word fluctroo. I never even heard of that word. I can actually hear myself getting dumber now.

fluctroo too!
 

I got only the last wrong.