A not so easy test about the world

[braumeister]

1 out of 8.
But I wasn't far off on two others.

We should probably pay more attention to statistics like these but we won't because they just don't have much relevance to our daily lives.

 

[REWahoo]

Isn't it interesting so many of us believed the numbers were worse - often far worse - than they apparently are. Added evidence that gloom & doom headlines sell far better than the facts.

 

[Nemo2]

Isn't it interesting so many of us believed the numbers were worse - often far worse - than they apparently are. Added evidence that gloom & doom headlines sell far better than the facts.

In 1963 I spent my 21st birthday in Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka); there, (and in southern India), were child beggars deliberately mutilated, (hands/feet turned backwards/upside down, legs horizontal to hips, ribs deformed, that kind of thing), but the last time I was there, 1985, the practice appeared to have been discontinued.

It was my feeling then, and now, that jobs, no matter how low paying, made it more profitable to send the kids to work.

Improvements aren't instantaneous, and sometimes to Westerners they aren't necessarily considered 'improvements', but things do get better.

One just has to recognize what things were like previously.

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

2 out of 8 for me. I thought my score would be better. I tried.

 

[MichaelB]

Isn't it interesting so many of us believed the numbers were worse - often far worse - than they apparently are. Added evidence that gloom & doom headlines sell far better than the facts.

+1

 

[Car-Guy]

I got a perfect score! (0)

Me too. I would have thought by guessing at them all, I'd get a few. It always seemed to work when taking a multiple choice test in school.

 

[donheff]

2 of 8. I have read about how things are improving overall but I just assumed I was going to learn how bad things remain so I guessed low on most. I put Abundance on hold at the library to get my head straight.

 

[Koogie]

3 correct.

I knew that the old cause celebre of global overpopulation has pretty much petered out. And that abject poverty has been disappearing at a good clip.

IMHO, a lot of the others were based on knowing exact percentages and the choices presented were pretty close in some instances. Bit of a "gotcha" feel to those ones.

 

[ERD50]

3 correct.

I knew that the old cause celebre of global overpopulation has pretty much petered out. And that abject poverty has been disappearing at a good clip.

IMHO, a lot of the others were based on knowing exact percentages and the choices presented were pretty close in some instances. Bit of a "gotcha" feel to those ones.

Yes, and the 'score' really should be weighted. It's ridiculous to just say "wrong" to two people, one who answered "70%" and another who answered "10%" when "85%" is the correct answer. The 10% answer is way 'wronger' than 70%. For me, mostly the ones I got wrong I missed by a mile. The overpopulation q is one of the 3 I got right, I was pretty sure that it had dropped across much of the world, wasn't quite sure how much effect the really poor areas that still have higher birth rates would offset that though.

But a very illuminating quiz.

-ERD50

 

[Bestwifeever]

I was completely wrong, but I'm happy I was. The world is in better shape than I thought.

Ditto.

I wonder what other general assumptions of mine are wrong.

 

[Tom52]

2 out of 8 guessing at all of them.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, and the 'score' really should be weighted. It's ridiculous to just say "wrong" to two people, one who answered "70%" and another who answered "10%" when "85%" is the correct answer...

+1

As stated, I got 2, but want partial credit for the other 6.

Actually, in the answers, they say that they do provide for it some, by allowing for more than one choice to be right.

 

[Nemo2]

As stated, I got 2, but want partial credit for the other 6.

Well, on that basis, I got them all right.

 

[JoeWras]

Well, that was embarrassing. 0 for 8. I am officially a know-nothing.

Edited to add: Based on all my wrong answers, the state of the world is not nearly as dire as I would have thought, particularly in these areas: the education of female children; life expectancy; and levels of poverty.

So after the test I felt ignorant, but more optimistic in general! I shall henceforth refer to myself as the Ignorant Optimist.

I had the exact same experience. Way too pessimistic. The only thing I was optimistic on was the measles vaccine, but I lowered my guess when I thought about the "no vaccination" crazy hitting the developed world.

 

[2017ish]

for much more on these topics, this site is worth looking at occasionally: Home | HumanProgress.org Lots of charts and data from sound sources.

NOTE that it is a Cato affiliate (as is Reason, effectively)

 

[ponyboy]

So what you're saying is most people know very little about things that do not affect them. Sounds fine to me.

 

[Zathras]

Thanks Harley!
Interesting quiz and article.

0 out of 8 showed me I am too much a pessimist

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

I think the general information that Hans Rosling is sharing is really interesting, but the exact answers in the quiz are not that important. It's really interesting that the poverty rate in the world continues to decrease, and that the % of middle class is rising. Also that the world population growth rate is falling, and the birthrate in most 1st world countries is well below the replacement rate. If you haven't seen this and this presentation, it's worth watching.

 

[ERD50]

Well, on that basis, I got them all right.

Not me! I was waaaaaaaay off on many of them. I think a weighed score would have made me look worse! I way underestimated vaccination rates, % of homes with electricity, education delta male/female, and a few others.

So what does this mean? On one hand, good news that the world is better off than many of us thought. But does that mean the media has been 'tricking' us with sensationalized stories focusing on only the bad things? Well, I'm no fan of the media, but it really does make sense to focus on the worst things, so they get attention and hopefully get better. The good things are already OK, so not much to say about them. So maybe it's appropriate?

We had a rare power outage here this AM (and an odd time, no storms or anything). It felt weird to be in that minority of homes w/o electricity, even if it was for only an hour!

-ERD50

 

[marko]

2/8

 

[Walt34]

I got 3 out of 8, and in this crowd I'm feeling pretty smug about that.

The ones I got right were the ones on life expectancy, women's education, and children's vaccinations. Admittedly I pretty much just guessed on all of them.

 

[NW-Bound]

I watched both videos shared by tfudtuckerpucker above. Very informative and upbeat presentations by Hans Rosling.

One thing that stands out: people all over the world are getting more prosperous, but the advance in longevity is not as fast as many would think.

We can live in nicer homes, drive fancier cars, watching bigger TVs, but our body still has that built-in clock that is ticking down. What we have done is to prevent the factors that can shorten our natural life, such as accidents and infectious diseases, but our body still has a time limit.

 

[Teacher Terry]

0. I am a loser)

 

[timo2]

2 out of 8

 

[38Chevy454]

2/8, so I guess I am about avg of the replies