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Economist Daniel Klein surveyed people about their ideological and economic beliefs.  He found that libertarians and conservatives tended to have a much better grasp of economic principles than did liberals.  Imagine that!

Writes Klein (to see it you might need a subscription to the Wall Street Journal):

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.

 To be sure, none of the eight questions specifically challenge the political sensibilities of conservatives and libertarians. Still, not all of the eight questions are tied directly to left-wing concerns about inequality and redistribution. In particular, the questions about mandatory licensing, the standard of living, the definition of monopoly, and free trade do not specifically challenge leftist sensibilities.

Yet on every question the left did much worse. On the monopoly question, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (31%) was more than twice that of conservatives (13%) and more than four times that of libertarians (7%). On the question about living standards, the portion of progressive/very liberals answering incorrectly (61%) was more than four times that of conservatives (13%) and almost three times that of libertarians (21%).

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.

Even the good guys get too many wrong.  Still, there's not much doubt why the left is so bad on economic issues.  They don't understand how the economy works!

View all comments (5) | Leave a comment

JmsA| 6.8.10 @ 9:19AM

Yet, witness the gall of the lefties/progressives lecturing us about economics and everything else.

Stan Redmond| 6.8.10 @ 10:21AM

Well Duh! ;-)

One only has to look at historical evidence. Every economy that has failed was a "progressive" (communist) based economy. The only reason old Europe is still hanging by a thread is the US picking up the tab for their national defense. Now that Obama (pbuh) and his fellow progressives is running the show Europe is now on the fast track to failure. Greece is just the first domino.

Jeff| 6.8.10 @ 10:30AM

Wait, wait, wait. Leftists are economic illiterates? Who knew?!

Indiana Alex| 6.8.10 @ 11:12AM

Shocking results.

Nick| 6.8.10 @ 4:09PM

There is no number of lessons that could educate a leftist on economics. Because lefties don't believe in private property.

Mr. Klein's survery also shows one other thing: Conservatives are better and smarter than libertarians! Ha-ha!
(That's a joke, for all you humorless libertarians out there.)

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More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/06/08/the-left-needs-an-economics-le

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