Following on from my promise on the Politopia thread, my Friend Maxim, has allowed me to link to his quiz. I think its really excellent, and I hope you will too. Many of the questions, you will notice, are famous quotes; making the test both enjyoable and a educational experience.

Well, here it is:

http://www.orgburo.com/pofo3.php

This was my summary

Good quiz, unlike any other I have taken.
My summary:


Bingo!!

I had some issues with the questions giving me little choice but to answer "neutral" as I didn't agree with the presumption of the questions. Nevertheless, I think it basically categorized me correctly:



Thanks for providing the link.

Well, it looks as if I'm a borderline personality...eh, they're not the first to think so!

Interesting quiz.

That was cool ... and the envelope please...



...I'm not a commie...

Yup, got fingered as a Libertarian again. Oddly, the poll categorized me midline for most topics, by score, but fairly extreme compared to other test takers, esp in favor of small government, free trade, liberal market, and non-marxism.

I can't be a True Libertarian, b/c i'd choose to have an aptitude test for voting rights ....OK, I admit only under the impossible assumption that it was a fair and accurate aptitude test...

I think that I'm a pragmatic, but then, who doesn't think the same about themself?

Hmm... I really like this test, it seems to be much deeper and less polarizing than most political quizzes I've taken.
My results:Left libertarian, as always but with some interesting considerations- -Both of which reflect my disinterest and ambivalence on economic issues.

Hrm.

Interesting......


Boderline.


Borderline again.

I guess I am with the libertarians again:



And a Marxist I am not. Not surprised!



I think the Repub's and Dem's should be paying attention. There seem to be more libertarian leaning folks then they realise!

Oh and the only item I was borderline on was national v international . I am not surprised there either because I haven't really made up my mind yet.

Can't tell if I'm tired or if I should be insulted:



Mostly, I was borderline. But some of the results are statistically off.





How can 73% or 66% of people be more in one direction when I'm in the middle? Seems off.

I love taking these sorts of tests...



Fairly close, however, I really had a problem with the wording of a couple of the questions....went against the "non-absolutist" in me.

Seems to be a crowd gathering here...might as well join them

Just for fun:





Interesting how I could be in the same basic group with someone such as Grendel, yet have such a major disagreement (different focus?) on such large matters--seems like there's a moral in there somewhere.....

amf:


Nothing sacrosanct about the middle of the scale being where the average would lie. Consider asking the following question: "'I would like to die horribly'--Please rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being disagree strongly and 10 being agree strongly"--do you expect the average answer to turn out to be a '5'? I wouldn't think so.

Yesterday I was more or less right in the middle of the political compass, and today I am a Marxist.



Some of the questions I felt had limited answers, and I had to put down neutral a few times even though i felt that wasn't really the right answer for me.

I agreed right up until "controlled-market kind of person", and after that, I swithced off. I think the interpretation is skewed. Why? One reason is below...


I passionately believe that governments HAVE to regulate markets, but I do not think that they should CONTROL them. The two are not the same thing at all. Does making murder illegal mean that government has any CONTROL over murder rates? Of course not.

This, to me, is not rooted in Marxism, but rooted in a McCarthy-ite fear of Marxism, socialism, and everything to the political left of Mom, apple-pie, and the touchingly naive idea that markets can solve anything on their own.

I am a SOCIALIST, not a Marxist. Socialism is rooted more in liberal Christian thought, not in Marx's class obsessions. I rather reject Marx's analysis, to be truthful.

You have just brutally simplified what socialism is. It is a historical trinity of many different forms: Socialism is a mansion with many rooms. Your description of socialism appears to be social democratic, or democratic socialist, rooted in the anglo tradition of Tony Benn or the European version of Bernstein. However, since you are wanting merely regulation of the economy it is questionable if you are socialist at all.

So don't prostitute terms to make yourself sound cool.

However, I do agree that it wrongly confuses socialist morphology with that of marxism. I actually mentioned that to Maxim, the quiz creator - amongst many other criticisms - but he simply didnt have the time to make it perfect. He hasnt ruled out, however, a revised edition in the future.

According to this test I am a:

a small-government, nationalist, liberal-market kind of person.

Also, 80% of those taking the test were more marxist then me, not a surprise either.


Just another note:



It's an interesting point. However, If we regulate business to say they can not deceive stockholders does that always prevent them from doing it? No. But we are discussing illegal activities here. However, if murder or deceiving stockholders were legal the rates of both former crimes would likely skyrocket so those laws do control those activates to some extent.

Lets look at regulation for a second.

Regulation requires that he have handicapped access to the store you want to rehab and reopen. Can't afford to install the ramp? Considering that the construction reguirments require it's incline to be no more the 1/2" per foot (I believe) and that will mean eliminating the buildings parking spaces, but you will still have to provide a handicapped parking space. Only one space left after the ramp? too bad. Also it must be concreate and it must be non-slip and it must have a handrail on both sides. And a license contactor must install it. So, $20,000 too much for you to afford installing the ramp. Well then the store can't open.

Regulation requires that you have a license to be a electrician. To get this license you need to document 4 years of work under another electrician as well as pass a test. What? you were an electrician in the military for 5-6 years, sorry that doesn't count according the the regulations, only the official work logs. Didn't have those in the military. So sorry, you can't be a journeyman electrician, we can't let you take the test, you'll have to find someone to apprentice for over the next 4 years. Can't afford to support yourfamily on an apprentices pay? too bad.

Your coal burning power plant employees 500 locals, and provides power to several towns. It was built decades ago and as a result the emissions controls are out of date according to the regulations? What? labor costs are high, taxes are high, cost of complying to regulations are high and as a result you can't afford to upgrade those stacks right now? What, you say if given the chance you could get the funding together over the next 10 years to do it? Too bad it needs to be done right now. We are fining you $10,000.00 a day until you fix it. What, at that rate of fines you'll never be able to upgrade the stack washers? sorry, the issue is not how to fix the problem, just the enforcement of the regulation.

You want to open up a handyman business to help the elderly in the community. This is what you have to do:

Incorporate because it is so easy to sue people who do work like this you have to protect you family. You have to pay several different types of insurance for the same reason.

What, you're going to drive you old van to do it. Well your drivers licence was fine for you until you decided to use the truck commercially. Now you need a different type of license. First take this test, why yes it is the very same test you took for your current license, now pay these fees for your new license that are 4 times to cost of your current one.

What? you want to help a local guy out and have him work with you. Ok well you need workmans comp, unemployment, payroll taxes, have to pay him at least the minimum wage regardless of what he is doing or what he wants to be paid. You also have to buy new ladders, tools, boots, etc because of OSHA regulations.

And this goes on and on and on.

What? you say you can't afford all this, all you wanted to create was a little home improvement business that focused on helping the elderly at a low cost? Too bad, regulations are regulations.

Yes too bad. To bad for the guy who wanted his own small business, too bad for the guy he might have employed and too bad for all of the elderly people he could have helped because you were going to be a low cost, trustworthy service for them.

All of these regulations very much CONTROL business. Americans all over the place loose jobs because of them, are locked out of the American dream to start a business because of them and pay more for services and products because of the costs of them.

As for the truth of these examples?

A local small store front in my town remains a vacant eyesore as it has for the past three years. The reason? it is too small (400 sq ft or so) for anyone to be willing to pay the cost to upgrade it to meet current regulations. My father-in-law wanted to turn it into a small store to sell new and used cleaning equipment and repair the same. Would have been nice to have a shop like that in our town. too bad.

The Coal plant. This happening to a coal plant in southern Illinois right now and has been for years (can't remember the name, I'll look it up later, it's still early). If instead of the fines the government had simply given this plant a tax incentive or a grant to upgrade the stack washers the air would have been cleaner a long time ago.

The electrician, the handyman. Me.

Regular everyday people with dreams are locked out of pursuing them because government has regulated them right out the opportunity. Regulation very much CONTROLS the markets. So much for the pursuit of happiness.

congratulations on completely missing the point overlandsailer. Whatever you semnatic quibbles you have with control, regulate and the dialetical relationship between the two, it simply does not negate Julian's point.

In short:

To control means having no market - A command economy.

To regulate means having a market to regulate - Free Market

Thus regulation cannot amount - certainly in your examples - to control. For in your examples the economy is not state run.

On everything else i was moderate.

17% of test takers were more internationalist than you.

19% of test takers were more materialist than you.

22% of test takers were more small government than you.

The rest was pretty borderline - though only 35% of test takers were more Marxist than me.

Like my good friend Grendel, I am clearly in the left-libertarian corner.



No surprises here.

Interesting. I answered "Neutral" to more questions than I would have liked. It will be interesting to see if anyone else comes up with this particular interpretation, or if I am odd 'woman' out.

At least I don't need no steekin' categories.

I would have never considered myself to be overly Marixist.



This seems to go against the idea that I would fit into the since communism takes a great deal of government to maintain.

And I was almost in the middle here:

and I would think that communism would mean a lot less "individual". In reality I feel I'm very balanced in my beliefs that individualism and the social good must be balanced -- policies should not favor one over the other but should keep both in mind.

I am feeling so ho-hum average.

Not sure I agree with all of that, but there it is. The quiz was interesting, but I thought some of the questions were skewed to one purpose or another.

How can I believe in free-trade and controlled markets at the same time?

Very interesting quiz.

OK I didn't post these as I took the test so early on that well DAAAA didn't know better. I must say that I have found subsequent posters scores quite interesting and have been so happy that they shared. So, it is only fair that I do so as well.

Overall, the PoliticsForum quiz considers you an individually-orientated, materialist, small-government, free-trade, liberal-market kind of person.

These characteristics would put you in the overall category of libertarian. Your natural home at PoliticsForum would be the Liberalism area.

Yep!

Really liked the they should pass a test to vote question.
printing out the rest of it to see how I compare to the world(as if the world ever stood a chance!)

Very scarey Piper Plexed. It appears we aren't too far from each other in the test results. Do you think we are related? Does it show that much?!

Don't tell Mom and Dad but I scored much lower on the religion thingy (I being less religious).

fairly close. though I agree with some of marx's positions (such as his view on religion) I don't agree with everything he says. I am an internationalist, and am definitely for a heavily regulated market. I am also socially-orientated and for as little government as possible (or a government of leaders and not rulers) and consider myself a socio-anarchist.

(notice my avatar? prime minister zapatero of spains socialist party )