Thursday, August 9, 2007

'Marketplace' Report: High-School Econ Test

Day to Day, August 9, 2007 · One-third of the nation's high school seniors are required to pass an economics test. Results were released Wednesday, and scores were higher than officials expected. Students did better on the econ test than on more standard tests such as history and science. Amy Scott of Marketplace and Madeleine Brand test each other to see if they'd graduate on time.


There were two test questions they quoted. One of which the 52% of the HS kids got right. Unfortunately you didn't need to know anything other than be able to deduce the obvious to get right. I'm assuming those 48% didn't care to think about the question or purposely got it wrong because they are fed up with the stupid school system. A school system that would ask questions like the next.

If oil producing countries released more oil would
1) They receive more money
2) They would quit exploring for more oil.
3) The world would cut back on alternative energy investments
4) I forget, but very bogus and stupid.

The "correct" answer was they'd make more money. This is totally bogus. We don't know the curves. Maybe with more being sold they'd make less money. This is the reason milk companies toss good milk out into the desert. Or why the French government is trying to limit wine production currently. Or perhaps over the long term they would make much more money and at the present they don't need the excess money it would produce. So at best the question has multiple answers and can not be an answer. The correct answer is less money would be used on alternative energy. No wonder HS kids don't bother to answer these questions correctly. They get tired of giving the politically correct dumbed down answers.

So why am I upset? I should just jump on the PC bandwagon and join the powers that be. Screw everybody.

Nope, not me.

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