On Bryan Caplan's Libertarian Test...
...I got a 54.
"51-90 points: You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much."
I have always been afraid to take the darned thing. (Yes, I know it is old, and lots of you already took it, and hate me for scoring so low).
My friend Betsy Newmark got a 40 (but she is wobbly on fundamentals, as I think we all know).
William Sjostrom got a 72.
When I look at the questions, I can't imagine getting over about a 90. It's just not possible, unless....well, it's just not possible. (The "best" possible score is a 160, so draw your own conclusions).
I agree that government is evil, but like most social scientists (even economists) I think it is a necessary evil.
11 comments:
Redeem yourself...post the news regarding Pop the Cap...A REAL Libertarian would never support a 6% alcohol cap on the world's greatest liquid.
TtwbC
Holy Cow, I got a 48...three points behind Munger and he's really loony!
Tom, the Close to Libertarian, onetime wannabe Canuck
Grease I thought you'd gone soft on us, but then I took the test and got a 52!! I was doing great at the beginning but then the questions get a little weird. I even said I would call myself an anarcho-capitalist, but it didn't help me much. ANGUS
Only a 20...but then again, I'm not into the idea of completely disarming the government and cutting military budgets by 75%
The test may have tough standards for judging pure libertarianism, but it's awfully generous in detecting libertarian impulses. I scored a 16--right on the borderline between "libertarian leanings" and "soft-core libertarian"--and I'm all for public schools, public roads, and big-time domestic spending (hell, I even like giving lots of money to other countries so long as they don't spend it on nukes). Must have been my disdain for anti-pot and anti-prostitution laws that got me up to 16.
42... Apparently my libertarianness is obvious and will develop with time. I suppose I should be waiting for a flash of libertarian insight. Though I gotta say... dissolving l'estat (no matter how cool it sounds to say l'estat) is not sitting with me well. I didn't know to be hardcore libertarian you'd have to be so extreme.
" 131-159 points: You are nearly a perfect libertarian, with a tiny number of blind spots. Think about them, then take the test over again. On the other hand, if you scored this high, you probably have a good libertarian objection to my suggested libertarian answer. :-)
160 points: Perfect! The world needs more like you. "
Those last two are a bit too extreme...
-CL
I only scored 63--I thought I was more hard core than that. Too much reading of Hume and Burke I guess.
scored a measly 46 - then it told me based on my responses I should move to Thailand or Amsterdam. Go figure. Hello all, grad student just passing through on my way to JSTOR! Leading seminar tmw on political control and bureaucracy, fun stuff you bastards.
I scored a 70, most likely because I haven't spent much time in the ivory tower yet. Now, I want someone to tell me what the difference is between "anarcho-capitalism" and socialism. Both of them seem to be utopian visions dependent on a view of mankind which is divorced from reality. Who's being unrealistic?
-James Smyth
I got a 54. I've never really thought of myself as a libertarian before. I suppose if I'm a libertarian I fall into the "neolibertarian" faction.
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