We Took Pew Research News IQ Quiz

My wife and I think of ourselves as above average news hounds so we were curious to see how we compared to 1,002 randomly sampled adults in a national Pew Research News IQ Quiz given on September 25-28. The results are in. My wife missed two questions and I missed one. This was better than 92% and 96% of America. Both my wife and I guessed wrong on the question, “Approximately what share of Americans currently live at or below the federal poverty line?” I guessed low and she guessed high. The correct answer was 15%. Only 20% of America got this question right. This question and the question, “On which of these activities does the U.S. government currently spend the most money”, were the two toughest questions on the quiz. I was surprised my wife missed it since the growth of entitlement spending has become such an intractable problem. There are no wise men or women in the room when the discussion gets around to how to “fix” social security.