Comments (29)

• Ben-T

  I got 58 out of 60 right for a score of 96.67%

  Published: September 20, 2007 9:43 PM

• John

  I got a 95%.

  Question 50 is not worded properly.
  Free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government’s centralized planning because:
  There are two choices that make sense from the Austrian perspective. A and D.
  A) the price system utilizes more local knowledge of means and ends.
  D) property rights and contracts are best enforced by the market system.

  I knew they wanted A (and got it right), but D is also very important.

  Published: September 20, 2007 10:23 PM

• llp

  I got a 54 on this. There were some loaded questions though. Military is not a public good, but is an artificially need created by the existence of a government. Under Anarcho-Capitalism, no government will invade because they recognize that they would have to conquer a country in which almost everybody was armed, neighborhood by neighborhood.

  Published: September 20, 2007 10:39 PM

• Mike

  I noticed that as well John, but A is certainly the Misesian answer.

  But, certainly D is quite important, and A would not even come about without the presence of D.

  Published: September 20, 2007 10:41 PM

• Mike

  Also true llp, it is ISI after all and they drink from the trough of public goods as well.

  Published: September 20, 2007 10:45 PM

• MikeM

  I scored 54/60. My knowledge of history is admittedly basic, but most of what I have learned has been since I graduated a few years ago. I love the term "centers of negative learning" for the schools were students actually experience a measurable loss of brain function during the 4 years they attend.

  Published: September 20, 2007 11:03 PM

• quincunx

  59/60

  Shouldn't take tests when you're tired.

  For #13 Andrew Johnson transformed into Andrew Jackson, made E look like a good answer.

  The irony is that I failed american history - oh well it did me no harm.

  Published: September 20, 2007 11:36 PM

• Ryan

  54 out of 60. Missed some history questions, got all the econ questions right. Question 50 threw me a bit because both A and D are correct. D is inferred by the true meaning of "free markets"; markets that are free of all government intervention.

  Published: September 21, 2007 12:01 AM

• M E Hoffer

  We should be less proud of our test scores that seem to be under the right-hand tail and more shocked/saddened that the 'hump' is, seemingly, so far behind...

  Remember, Poll Tests aren't coming anytime soon.

  Published: September 21, 2007 4:52 AM

• TLWP Sam

  Hell. I got 75% and I not American or overly familiar with American history. Probably one of those freebies that makes you feel smart so you go and take one of their courses or something.

  Published: September 21, 2007 5:51 AM

• M E Hoffer

  from the right-hand margin, seemingly apt:
  Ludwig von Mises: "Those underlings who in all the preceding ages of history had formed the herds of slaves and serfs, of paupers and beggars, became the buying public, for whose favor the businessmen canvass. They are the customers who are always right, the patrons who have the power to make poor suppliers rich and rich suppliers poor." - The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality

  let us remember the political entrepeneurs as well..

  Published: September 21, 2007 5:59 AM

• 8

  I got 100%. What do I win?

  Published: September 21, 2007 7:09 AM

• Chris Meisenzahl

  Fun link, I got 54 out of 60, 90%.

  Published: September 21, 2007 8:28 AM

• J.K. Baltzersen

  I'm not American. I got 95 %. Was this test supposed to be hard?

  Published: September 21, 2007 9:37 AM

• Robert M.

  I only got the questions about the dates wrong. I'm very bad with dates. I just looked at the rankings and saw Texas A&M's terrible ranking, and being a current UT student, I couldn't help but smile.

  Published: September 21, 2007 10:21 AM

• Nelson

  58 out of 60 correctly — 96.67 %

  Texas A&M Grad, BTW

  Published: September 21, 2007 11:12 AM

• JimmyMac

  60 out of 60

  Published: September 21, 2007 12:08 PM

• mike

  58/60 Colgate U. (Go Gate!), U of Mo Law (Go Tigers!), but my real education came from LvMI, without which I probably would have missed alot more.
  Only a Rothbardian would have answered D on Q50. Hayek laughs! (Mises too. That's one of the few functions of govt).
  I missed Burke (jerk) and National Defense (maybe I do have a little Rothbard in me).
  Thanks for the link. Fun! except for how stupid our genius elite college seniors are.

  Published: September 21, 2007 1:59 PM

• Buster

  Four years at an ivy-league university only gets an average improvement of 0.1%?!

  Even the highest category (State, Non-Flagship Universities) only gained 5.9%.

  I guess we should be thankful the scores didn't go down.

  How many books could you buy from the von Mises bookstore with the money that would have been spent on an ivy-league degree? Parents: save your money!

  Published: September 21, 2007 2:03 PM

• jake

  I got 85%. I picked D on question 50, which is also correct. Maybe the people who designed the test don't know as much as they think.

  I'm Canadian, have not read a ton of history or economics, and am a high school drop out. Most of the history is basic knowledge. The economic section is very easy if you have not been brainwashed, or if you had the ability and courage to think for yourself.

  Published: September 21, 2007 2:26 PM

• Curt Howland

  93%. So the "income increased for the lower and middle classes, but more for the upper class" answer they say is right, but only if one ignores inflation. I will gladly get that wrong just to rub their noses in it.

  And I guess I got the social security question wrong because I put "interest on the debt". Of course, they're _not_ paying the interest, they're just letting it build up. So ignoring interest yeah ok, SS.

  Published: September 21, 2007 3:51 PM

• Mike

  57/60. Rushed a bit towards the end and miss read a question. I found several questions with dual answers such as the one # 50 I think it was. A & D were both correct. Had a serious problem with # 36, & 53. #36 since H.I.H. George W. is a legitimate soverein I guess his Afghan/Iraqi war is now a "just war"? as for # 53 I guess I'm a wee bit confused I'm of the opinion that I am paying for national defense directly out of my pocket(taxes/theft).Ah hell, what do I know. I'm just red neck rancher from Hondo. Anyway it was kind of fun. I didn't think I'd have remembered any of that stuff.

  Published: September 21, 2007 10:17 PM

• banker

  You go to school for connections and access to company recruiters. Save that, I would have never bothered going.

  Published: September 22, 2007 3:11 AM

• Paul Hartyanszky

  57/60.
  Two of the wrong ones were American history questions (Q23,32). Also erred foolishly on 38. I'm an 18 year old Australian high school student.

  I have to mention that the people at the ISI have at least some humour. I wonder if anybody though that Reagan told Gorbachev to pull down the Great Wall of China or that the common law was ruled unconstitutional or that Saddam's best supporters were Israelis or - my favourite: "government planners are too cautious in spending taxpayers’ money".

  llp's criticism of the ISI is a bit harsh. The question did read: "National defense is considered a public good because..."

  Published: September 22, 2007 7:27 AM

• George Gaskell

  On Question 50, A seems like the Hayekian answer, whereas D is more of a Misesian/Rothbardian answer.

  Published: September 22, 2007 10:00 AM

• TGGP

  You guys saying D is a valid answer to question #50 are rather dense. The question says "typically", and even granting that anarchy would do a superior job (which, to answer George Gaskell, Mises did not, he would be less likely to accept that than Hayek) it is certainly the case that government rather than anarchy is typical.

  Under Anarcho-Capitalism, no government will invade because they recognize that they would have to conquer a country in which almost everybody was armed, neighborhood by neighborhood.
  Which is why the anarchic indigenous tribes of the western hemisphere, africa and australia were never defeated by european states and the heavily armed southern states of america threw off the military occupation of the north. Don't throw around absolutes, it makes you look silly.

  only if one ignores inflation
  I recall them using the phrase "real income", which adjusts for inflation.

  Published: September 22, 2007 11:36 AM

• N. Joseph Potts

  The "low" scores ISI reports and laments merely reflect the rational ignorance of the people they're testing. The subject(s) of the test is not of interest to the testees because it doesn't MATTER to them, or at least they FEEL it doesn't, and who are we (or ISI) to say that they're wrong, just because (obviously) these subjects matter to us (I made a 95)?

  Even in a "democracy" (I'm using a lot of quotation marks in this comment, and I mean every one of them) where citizens are supposed to vote intelligently on these issues, the reward to college students for informing themselves on these matters simply isn't there. It points up the deficiencies of the democratic form of government (which isn't real in any case), NOT of college educations or of the people receiving them.

  Published: September 22, 2007 12:03 PM

• Rick

  58/60 barely
  I would have skipped most of the lectures for my class "U.S. History since 1877" at Texas A&M if it wouldn't have meant automatic failure

  Published: September 24, 2007 7:49 PM

• Tory

  I scored 75%. Four wrong on economics including the last one (social security.) I have a BS in Accounting. I make no claims except I have a good conceptualization on our Constitution.

  I thought it was an offbeat test (and difficult.) Only about 20 questions on things every American should know. Americans don't need to know what happens when the feds buy bonds - they need to know why they issue bonds and about balance budget spending and deficits.

  I don't want Americans to know anything about Locke; they need to remember the difference between Jefferson and Hamilton - and who authored the Bill of Rights.

  This was the kind of test that would typically come from the Mises Institute - a libertarian think tank looking for the next ingenius economic theory that will spare mankind. Lighten-up.

  BTW, whenever Lew Rockwell writes about economic theory I fall sleepy. His best stuff is about war or foreign policy (and he's one of the best at that.)

  Well, this is an economics blog.

  Published: September 26, 2007 6:02 PM