Have a look at the latest statistics for Version 7 of the Quiz. We are now up to over 52,000 takers! I would say that the statistics are significant, save that they are a bit biased. You can see the bias in the scatter plot: A large fraction of my traffic these days comes from… Continue Reading
Updating the Enhanced Precision Political Quiz
Author Archives: carl
Over 18000 People Have Taken the Version 7 of the Quiz
After a few months leaving things alone, I have finally gotten around to tabulating the latest results from Version 7 of the Quiz (released in August 2012). A quick look at a scatter plot indicates that the Quiz is now reasonably normalized: Yes, there is a cluster in the Libertarian quadrant, but this is to… Continue Reading
Housing Crisis
I guess I should have a question related to the current recession. Lots of options here. Could talk about banking and money, regulating the financial system or possible bailouts of homeowners who bought at the peak of the housing bubble. Banking has lots of gradations of libertarian answers, but what could I put for authoritarian… Continue Reading
War on Terror
War is the health of the State — except where it is the death of the State. That exception thingy is why I have avoided the foreign intervention issue in prior editions of the Quiz. Taking out Hitler was good for liberty — but the process required quite a bit of death and taxes. For… Continue Reading
Where I Stand
In the interest of full disclosure, I just took Version 7 of the Quiz to see where I stand as currently calibrated. Here is where I came out: Maybe I should relabel this Leff-Leaning Moderate Libertarian. But since I don’t use “Moderate” for conservatives and liberals at this distance from the center, I may… Continue Reading
Version 7 is Up!
At long last Version 7 of Quiz2D is up and running! As I write this I have just put the fifth draft up on the site. (The fifth draft has an added question on abortion.) I write this post both as a quick announcement and as a placeholder for general comments on the new edition.… Continue Reading
Immigration
Immigration is a somewhat ambiguous issue on the Nolan Chart. Cracking down on immigration definitely requires government action — huge amounts of intrusive government action to deport illegal immigrants not caught at the border. But given the existence of the welfare state and minimum wages laws, granting amnesty and/or opening the floodgates would require expanding… Continue Reading
Public Education
Over the years I have come across more authoritarian options to make the public schools better than I was aware of last time around: longer school hours, year around schools, uniforms, advanced degrees for school teachers, etc. As such, I think it wise to narrow the Education question to just primary education. Leave college out… Continue Reading
Censorship
Should I keep the censorship question? It seems dated with cable TV and the Internet as options. If you want to see it, you pretty much can these days. In fact you can see it even if you don’t want to. The main calls for censorship I see currently are people complaining about non-media corporations… Continue Reading
Sex
My old sex question is really dated — it references the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. Sodomy and fornication laws are no longer enforced. Whether or not prostitution should be legal is relevant, but what do I put in for authoritarian options? In the comments below, I would really appreciate some ideas here. Should I keep the sex… Continue Reading