http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604575282190930932412.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
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.
..
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.
..
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.
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.
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