Comments on: Can you pass a U.S. Citizenship test?

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 15:35:09 +0000

I just talk a lot of Scottish rubbish (though if it’s no’ Scottish, it’s craaaaap)to distinguish myslef from the Merkans.

Nice to see ya too!

By: mcfly

mcfly — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 12:52:54 +0000

Why was I under the impression you weren’t a US resident? Sometimes I swear my brain makes things up just so it can have a laugh at me.

In any case, it’s nice to see you here again.

By: bowser

bowser — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 08:22:12 +0000

Was a rather impressive test. Many of the questions required a depth of knowledge which is easy for a citizen but would be difficult for someone else to learn.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:46:51 +0000

Guess I paid attention

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:00:45 +0000

You inspired me to take another look at the quiz, Frank, and got a better idea of what bothers me: The quiz (and apparently the real citizenship test) are a mixture of law and concrete civic duty, with a rather large number of questions that are either trivia irrelevant to doing one’s civic duty (FDR, Susan B Anthony, name of the national anthem, state capitals, border states, 13 stripes on the flag, on and on); or things like the economics question (and others) that sound a lot like propaganda.

By “propaganda” I mean that this is coming from the government, and directed at people who are presumably starting out ignorant. Mixed in with questions about real laws and Constitutional provisions, things like the economic question could be confused for legal requirements. But they’re merely custom and the preference of the establishment. The Constitution is just as silent on capitalism as it is on English as our official language. Another question about the “the two major political parties”, again, makes it sound as if the Constitution mandates it. But in fact the Founders hated and feared the rise of political parties; see Washington’s Farewell Address for a prescient warning.

I found a study guide at La Migra’s web site.

11. What is the economic system in the United States?*
▪ capitalist economy
▪ market economy

“market economy” isn’t completely wrong, since Constitutional provisions protecting commerce between the states imply a market-based economy. But the web site quiz left that one out, and made the choices even more starkly black-and-white.

You’re right that the questions aren’t wrong because they reflect a current reality, Frank. But as I tried to explain, it’s the context and implication of the questions that bothered me a bit. Not a big bit, to be sure, this is just another tempest in a teapot. But it just set of a few mental alarms.

By: mcfly

mcfly — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 20:10:00 +0000

As Jay Leno demonstrated repeatedly on the Tonight Show, if you want the correct answer on the streets of America, your best bet is to find someone who’s just visiting.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 19:00:38 +0000

Not bad for a wee Scots lad.

By: FrankC

FrankC — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:13:28 +0000

I thought John Adams was a writer of the Federalist papers and an embarrassing brain fart on the number of SC justices. I said 12.

By: FrankC

FrankC — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:13:10 +0000

IE What party is the president? answer Democrat. There is no law that the president be a Democrat, but he is right now.

I would say that given the choices, capitalist is the obvious answer.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 01:42:05 +0000

I got this diving-down-the-rabbithole sensation reading the sweeping generalizations in your post alleging that “you and others” make sweeping generalizations about you. That way lies madness. You might want to get grounded by rereading my post. It was entirely supportive of your intention to look deeper into my “claims”.

It’s worth getting to know about economics in a real world context. It seems to be at the heart of most politics, always in the past and especially now. I’ve mentioned in passing how impressed I am by Thomas Piketty’s new book “Capital in the 21st Century”, and I think it’s going to be as significant a book as Adam Smith’s and Karl Marx’s work. Already as many people have read it as ever read the older works, and his ideas are sparking some hot brain-on-brain action all around the world. It would be a refreshing change to find somebody around the Zone willing to talk seriously about economics, something better than “golly gee whiz capitalism’s the very bestest thing ever and anybody who disagrees is a commie traitor”. I’ve gotten way too much of that kind of vapid shit over the years.

Enjoy Chuck E, and we’ll talk more in August.