Survey Shows Common Misconceptions about the Economy

[CSpec]

A recent survey by a professor of his economics students finds the following:

The median student believes that 35% of workers earn the minimum wage and a substantial fraction think that a majority of workers earn the minimum wage (Actual rate in 2007: 2.3% of hourly-paid workers and a smaller share of all workers earn the minimum wage)

When asked about profits as a percentage of sales the median student guessed 30% (actual rate, closer to 4%).

When asked about the inflation rate over the last year (survey was in 2009) the median student guessed 11%. Actual rate: much closer to 0%. Note, how important such misconceptions could be to policy.

When asked by how much has income per person in the United States changed since 1950 (after adjusting for inflation) the median student said an increase of 25%. Actual rate an increase of about 248%, thus the median student was off by a factor of 10.

And these are economics students! Those in other fields must be off even more. What is this, France?

[Drew Dowdell]

..... I promised myself no more politics arguments.....

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Heard a story the other day that was a survey of Charlotte financial 'authorities'

62% of them apparently think that the economy WILL NOT rebound anytime soon. 35% of them think that we're headed for a "double dip" recession.

It's so awesome that I have 2 degrees, yet cannot find a job because of these greedy bastards.

[regfootball]

They are likely right.

FOGM i am sure your girlfriend is taking that Arch degree and looking forward to an immediately lucrative degree and getting filthy rich in this building friendly environment!

the economy will not rebound any time soon. double dip is eminent. when will the retards figure it out. if jobs become stable and pay comes back.....THEN we will stabilize so many things and see improvement.

I wonder what brand of vehicles I will be selling (with my degree) soon....

Edited October 14, 2010 by regfootball

[caddycruiser]

I wonder what brand of vehicles I will be selling (with my degree) soon....

Yeah.

[Blake Noble]

I wonder what brand of vehicles I will be selling (with my degree) soon....

Oh lord.

[A Horse With No Name]

They are likely right.

FOGM i am sure your girlfriend is taking that Arch degree and looking forward to an immediately lucrative degree and getting filthy rich in this building friendly environment!

the economy will not rebound any time soon. double dip is eminent. when will the retards figure it out. if jobs become stable and pay comes back.....THEN we will stabilize so many things and see improvement.

I wonder what brand of vehicles I will be selling (with my degree) soon....

The writer quoted by the OP must have been stoned.

Reg...let me fix this for you..."I wonder what cars I'm going to be paid minumum wage to break apart at the scrap metal yard...with my degree."

Or....Given the whole outsourcing thing...."I wonder which cars I'm going to be paid seven bucks a day to put into containers and shipped to China...after the Republicans do away with minumum wage...."

Or...given the whole energy thing..."I wonder what cars we'll be parked, imbile and broken in front of my house when we can no longer fuel them."

This is utterly trajic bull$h!, and the result of thirty years of effed up Republican thinking and action IMHO. Greedy Criminals...I think Future of GM got it right!

Oh lord.

Prayer ain't gonna solve things....

[A Horse With No Name]

And these are economics students! Those in other fields must be off even more. What is this, France?

I've had three excahnge students live with me from France. The French system of doing things is infinitely better. They have a much better education system, a much better transportation system, much better protection for the environment, better foreign relations with other nations, better, cleaner, healthier food, better architecture, better wine, better looking females even....

I think I read somewhere that it's much easier to advance in class in France than in the USA. So much for the whole bull$h! notion that unrestricted free market capitalism builds a better world....

[Blake Noble]

The writer quoted by the OP must have been stoned.

No, I'm sure he was as sober as a priest on Sunday. I don't think there's a drug out there powerful enough to make you a total dipshiit. Maybe a complete retard, but not a total dipshit.

Reg...let me fix this for you..."I wonder what cars I'm going to be paid minumum wage to break apart at the scrap metal yard...with my degree."

Or....Given the whole outsourcing thing...."I wonder which cars I'm going to be paid seven bucks a day to put into containers and shipped to China...after the Republicans do away with minumum wage...."

Or...given the whole energy thing..."I wonder what cars we'll be parked, imbile and broken in front of my house when we can no longer fuel them."

This is utterly trajic bull$h!, and the result of thirty years of effed up Republican thinking and action IMHO. Greedy Criminals...I think Future of GM got it right!

I really don't think you can place all if the blame solely on one party. Democrat, Republican ... it's a choice between two evils and it's hard to say which evil is the lesser one because it's a personal opinion that's mostly unreliable.

No, I think all of the BS stems from the fact our government is never balanced. The scales always tip in the favor of one party way too much in between elections and, because basically one group of people are running the show, nothing much gets accomplished.

Can't argue about politicians being greedy, though.

Prayer ain't gonna solve things....

Well that's okay because I ain't much of a praying man.

[CSpec]

I've had three excahnge students live with me from France. The French system of doing things is infinitely better. They have a much better education system, a much better transportation system, much better protection for the environment, better foreign relations with other nations, better, cleaner, healthier food, better architecture, better wine, better looking females even....

I think I read somewhere that it's much easier to advance in class in France than in the USA. So much for the whole bull$h! notion that unrestricted free market capitalism builds a better world....

I lived in France for five months. Standard of living is noticeably worse, prices are much higher, people are less mobile, and society is stuck in a caste system of those who have cushy jobs for life and those who can't break in and live on contract and temporary employment. Also much of the time the spoiled rotten public sector employees shut the whole country down when they have a hissy fit and go on strike.

The writer quoted by the OP must have been stoned.

The truth is hard to swallow.

[Blake Noble]

The truth is hard to swallow.

Uh, no.

Any news regarding the economy improving would be as easy to swallow as an ice cold Dr. Pepper.

What you posted is a few paragraph's worth of lies, damn lies, and statistics.

I think FOG's situation is one bit of proof that whoever you quoted was too busy to be bothered with studying anything they were talking about in depth, i.e. getting out there and seeing just how bad it is.

[regfootball]

I've had three excahnge students live with me from France. The French system of doing things is infinitely better. They have a much better education system, a much better transportation system, much better protection for the environment, better foreign relations with other nations, better, cleaner, healthier food, better architecture, better wine, better looking females even....

I think I read somewhere that it's much easier to advance in class in France than in the USA. So much for the whole bull$h! notion that unrestricted free market capitalism builds a better world....

everything i hear makes me think France is the worst possible example of a society in the world.

an entirely sidetracked sort of priority system that if it yielded a productive result could be defended.

wine is nice and the women put out, do kinky $h!, and let you have mistresses. but they revolt there, unemployment is insane, and the rest of Europe hates France. they don't have any solid economic background, and they really don't lead or innovate in much. i don't get the impression they have a success based culture, or any sort of real drive for self reliance. You never hear of French being pleasant, and often you hear of French being self absorbed.

I dunno, I have relatives that visited Ireland, all of a sudden, that was the place to move to. SOme other friends went to Austrailia, and they came back and said, we want to live there. I visited California and thought the wine road was cool and thought wow i should move here (and since i haz wisely come to my senses). All the annoying scandinavians think their point of view is the way to go and they may be the most backwards jerks on the planet.

We started a new country to get away from Europe, i see no reason to want to emulate them now.

Real truth is marraige requires compromise to work, the same analogy has to be drawn to politics. No one side will ever fully get their way, and in order for it to work and be FUNCTIONAL, there has to be a balance.

Note how all the extreme swings left and right in this country have left us in a huge mess.

France does not offer solution examples to us that are in the middle. And they don't really have much in the way of success proved on a global scale to offer them as an prime example either.

Maybe some aspects of French way of life are worth considering, but holistically I would never pattern society after France.

THere is not a buttload of French women I have seen that I find stunningly hot either. They all seem to have a sort of underfed and ungroomed sort of look to a lot of them that I am not hip to.

Laetitia Casta is OF COURSE an exception to this.

Edited October 16, 2010 by regfootball

[Drew Dowdell]

You cannot tell me that higher taxes and some socialist type system for health care, education, and transportation stifles the desire to better one's self and at the same time say that Germany produces some of the world's most aspirational vehicles.

I notice NO lack of entrepreneurship in Germany when I'm there. In fact, I sat down last month in Cologne with my friend and another of his friends to review a business plan they have for a new line of adult personal lubrication and skin lotion products they're developing (one of them has a lot of experience in producing them). Even gave them a good name for two of the products that will likely end up being used. I continue to help them remotely now.

[Drew Dowdell]

France doesn't have an issue really. Much of their high unemployment is from the immigrant population. Their productivity per worker tends lower, but at the same time they take a lot more leisure time than we do. They don't have the national mentality that the corporations get 85% of your waking life and you only get 15% like we have here. The pace overall is just a lot slower (outside of the big cities) even just compared to our own rural areas. I actually wish we had a mentality closer to this.... it would be a lot less stressful for everyone.

[A Horse With No Name]

France doesn't have an issue really. Much of their high unemployment is from the immigrant population. Their productivity per worker tends lower, but at the same time they take a lot more leisure time than we do. They don't have the national mentality that the corporations get 85% of your waking life and you only get 15% like we have here. The pace overall is just a lot slower (outside of the big cities) even just compared to our own rural areas. I actually wish we had a mentality closer to this.... it would be a lot less stressful for everyone.

Bingo. this is one of the reasons I live in rural Ohio... a slower pattern of life.

Although no one has ever accused me of being especially quick anyways....

[balthazar]

>>"this is one of the reasons I live in rural Ohio... a slower pattern of life."<<

Funny: there's this guy I went to HS school & recently reconnected with via FB- I recall when he left Jersey at least 20 years ago, he told me he was moving to OH "for a slower pace of life". This, in a sleepy town of maybe 2000. Since then we've re-dis-connected, as he was unable to have open-minded discussions on political matters, being so deeply rooted in his own POV, despite protestations to the stereotypical contrary.

[loki]

When asked about the inflation rate over the last year (survey was in 2009) the median student guessed 11%. Actual rate: much closer to 0%. Note, how important such misconceptions could be to policy.

When asked by how much has income per person in the United States changed since 1950 (after adjusting for inflation) the median student said an increase of 25%. Actual rate an increase of about 248%, thus the median student was off by a factor of 10.[/indent]

inflation, yeah, maybe for 09, but this year it's been more like 6%? (not from the politicized #) and S.S. isn't raising rates next year either, oh man our retired living paycheck to paycheck are screwed.

hourly wage is way down (using the green line)

and the median income is maybe 10K higher.... the students were very close for '09.. compared to the ~250%.

[PurdueGuy]

Just for the fun of it...

[Drew Dowdell]

Man... look at that blip there in 1980 and then a constant sinking feeling ever since..... it's almost as if some large even happened in 1980 that changed the way our economic system was organized.

Once upon a cold November, back in `80, you'll remember,

Came to pass a great election, with a wondrous change in store;

By a landslide, one was winning, promising a new beginning;

Tall and proud, he stood there, grinning, like so many times before;

Who was he, this cool one, grinning, like so many times before?

'Twas The Reagan, nothing more.

Once he was inaugurated, Reaganomics he created,

Promising a balanced budget, like we had in days of yore;

"Though," he said, "our debt is growing, and a bundle we are owing,

"I'll cut taxes, 'cause I'm knowing this will save us bucks galore;"

"Please explain," a newsman asked, "how will this save us bucks galore?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Less is more."

Pushing for defense, he pleaded, brand-new missiles would be needed:

"That's the only way," he said, "to keep the country out of war;"

"True," he said, "they're not required, and they're not meant to be fired;

"In five years they'll be retired--still we must build hundreds more;"

"Tell us why," a newsman asked, "we must be building hundreds more?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Jobs galore."

Was he real or from a movie? "Make my day" sure sounded groovy,

Standing up to Congress or the rebels in El Salvador;

Flicks like "Rambo" he promoted (sev'ral times, it should be noted);

Once John Wayne he even quoted, when Kaddafi threatened war;

"Does this mean," a newsman asked, "we're heading toward a Mid-East war?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Hit the shore."

During times he wasn't dozing, many plans he was proposing,

Dealing with the deficit, which he no longer could ignore;

"Cuts," he said, "I'm recommending, pending our ascending spending,

"With attending trends suspending, then extending as before."

"Does this mean," a newsman asked, "a balanced budget like before?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Nevermore!"

[loki]

olds are you trying to link our fiscal policy to our monetary policy?

[A Horse With No Name]

Man... look at that blip there in 1980 and then a constant sinking feeling ever since..... it's almost as if some large even happened in 1980 that changed the way our economic system was organized.

Once upon a cold November, back in `80, you'll remember,

Came to pass a great election, with a wondrous change in store;

By a landslide, one was winning, promising a new beginning;

Tall and proud, he stood there, grinning, like so many times before;

Who was he, this cool one, grinning, like so many times before?

'Twas The Reagan, nothing more.

Once he was inaugurated, Reaganomics he created,

Promising a balanced budget, like we had in days of yore;

"Though," he said, "our debt is growing, and a bundle we are owing,

"I'll cut taxes, 'cause I'm knowing this will save us bucks galore;"

"Please explain," a newsman asked, "how will this save us bucks galore?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Less is more."

Pushing for defense, he pleaded, brand-new missiles would be needed:

"That's the only way," he said, "to keep the country out of war;"

"True," he said, "they're not required, and they're not meant to be fired;

"In five years they'll be retired--still we must build hundreds more;"

"Tell us why," a newsman asked, "we must be building hundreds more?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Jobs galore."

Was he real or from a movie? "Make my day" sure sounded groovy,

Standing up to Congress or the rebels in El Salvador;

Flicks like "Rambo" he promoted (sev'ral times, it should be noted);

Once John Wayne he even quoted, when Kaddafi threatened war;

"Does this mean," a newsman asked, "we're heading toward a Mid-East war?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Hit the shore."

During times he wasn't dozing, many plans he was proposing,

Dealing with the deficit, which he no longer could ignore;

"Cuts," he said, "I'm recommending, pending our ascending spending,

"With attending trends suspending, then extending as before."

"Does this mean," a newsman asked, "a balanced budget like before?"

Quoth The Reagan, "Nevermore!"

Utterly brilliant and true....