New PEW News IQ Quiz

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Wow, only 1 in 3 know the current unemployment rate and only 1 in 5 know what the government spends the most money on! (That's worse than random guessing, btw because there were only 4 choices).

Nobody is going to random guess. Everyone will have an opinion, and given the high profile of the US government debt, many people will assume that is the highest. I overthought the question and thought the same might be true of social scurity.

10/12

Didn't know what the US Gov. thinks the unemployment rate is.

I also didn't know the Prime Minister of Israel which, being Jewish, I feel slightly bad about.

I wouldn't have been able to name him, but I knew it wasn't David Cameron, and assumed that being dead disqualified Ariel Sharon which made it fairly easy.

 

[Modified]

... and naively thought Social Security was funded from workers paychecks.

In a sense, it is, and they still talk about it as though it were a fund isolated from other taxes and spending. Even if it truly were, it would still be "government spending" I suppose.

 

[daredelvis]

12/12

11/12 I used to know which countries were Shia vs. Sunni, but I don't now.

Well, at least you knew there are two of them. That put you way ahead of the guy that was willing to commit American lives and trillions of dollars to two ground wars in the middle east.You have that going for you.


Daredelvis

 

[bynmdsue]

High school or less, 12/12, 1%er

It'd have been more difficult if it wasn't multiple choice.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

You answered 8 of 12 questions correctly.

A bit more thought and I might have done better but there is only so much time in the world.

(I did get the question on my gender correct though. )

 

[Old man]

You answered 10 of 12 questions correctly.
You scored better than 92% of the public, below 4% and the same as 4%.

Missed the Ebola and the Shia/Sunni questions.

 

[The_Animus]

11 out of 12.

Missed the poverty line question.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

I missed the Sunni/Shia question because I can never keep track of which cloud looks more like a bunny.

 

[Swagomatic]

10/12
I missed the one about minimum wage, but it must have been a mis-click, because I know it is $7.25. I also missed the poverty line question.

 

[mgidm86]

Wow, only 1 in 3 know the current unemployment rate and only 1 in 5 know what the government spends the most money on! (That's worse than random guessing, btw because there were only 4 choices).

That's because the government unemployment numbers are full of dung so nobody "remembers" what they are

Only 9/12. Missed the SS one (doh!) and Iran, whatever the question was, and some other one.

 

[ravdin]

12 of 12. I admit I wasn't sure about a couple of the questions and made some lucky guesses.

 

[TragicMonkey]

11/12. Missed the prime minster of Israel question. I thought it was a trick question and Israel was one of those countries with a prime minister and a president, and got confused which was which.

 

[Wolrab]

11/12. Missed the prime minster of Israel question. I thought it was a trick question and Israel was one of those countries with a prime minister and a president, and got confused which was which.

All that and Dame Judy wasn't a choice.

 

[bob_kark]

Bah, 9/12. Guessed at the poverty line and overestimated. Saw Greenspan and picked him w/o thinking. For some reason, I thought Netanyahu wan't PM anymore. In my defense, this was a speed test for me while I was waiting on an interview applicant.

 

[Beerina]

11/12, got the spending one wrong. I was (mis?)remembering some factoid that debt interest was second only to defense.

 

[C_Felix]

F me. 8 out of 12.

I wasn't sure about Sunni/Shia one.
I brain farted on Isreal's PM.
I could've sworn it was interest on the debt.
And the level of poverty? Shot in the dark.

 

[Hutch]

10 of 12. Missed the 'Spend the most", went with National Debt, and had the unemployment rate at 9% instead of 6%.

Those were 2 of the 3 least-correct answers for College grads, so I'm in good company it seems.

 

[IXP]

12 right. I was absolutely certain on all but the % of poverty. Fortunately there were no questions about Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber.

IXP

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

Bah, 9/12. Guessed at the poverty line and overestimated. Saw Greenspan and picked him w/o thinking. For some reason, I thought Netanyahu wan't PM anymore. In my defense, this was a speed test for me while I was waiting on an interview applicant.

Janet Yellen is Greenspan in a bra, so I'd give you half credit.

 

[ravdin]

10 of 12. Missed the 'Spend the most", went with National Debt, and had the unemployment rate at 9% instead of 6%.

Those were 2 of the 3 least-correct answers for College grads, so I'm in good company it seems.

I got that one right because it asked for what the government reported as the unemployment rate. Your answer is probably closer to the mark.