How Smart are Americans? (ethic, illegal, borders, illegals)

[lemon&lime]

I want to believe that Americans are a smart group of people, I really do. I read on the TV board that the show Lost "requires a college degree" to understand due to the complex themes and literary references, etc. Last night while on the ABC website I clicked on the "enhanced" version of the last episode only to find out 5 minutes in to it that it has POP UPS which explain what the dialogue and references mean! I couldn't take it, it was really annoying!!

[Marodi]

I'd say we are average on the whole, considering a large number of foreigners come to our schools for education.

However, the reason as a country we are so wealthy is because of greed and ingenuity.

[cottonwood2420]

Originally Posted by crystalblue

How would you rate the intelligence of the avg American?

We elected Bush twice-that answers the question.

[DanielRead]

5% of our population can't even point out where the USA is on a world map!

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by DanielRead

5% of our population can't even point out where the USA is on a world map!

Which is good because I need people to cook my food, clean my car, bag my groceries, and answer my phone.

[crystalblue]

washingtonpost.com

a decent article about this in the post.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by ImRandy

Which is good because I need people to cook my food, clean my car, bag my groceries, and answer my phone.

So much for Personal Responsibility®...

[saganista]

Originally Posted by crystalblue

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

a decent article about this in the post.

Yes, some important points. It was good to see highlighted that so many today are not only dumb (to use Jacoby's word), but arrogantly convinced of there being no need to be any brighter...what Jacoby calls anti-rationalism heaped on top of anti-intellectualism. That point is made daily on these boards...some days in spades...

[bale002]

By mathematical definition, the average American is of average intelligence.

History shows that intelligence is only one factor in survivability.

Probably more important factors are flexibility, adaptability, and luck.

I know plenty of dumber people who outlive smarter people, and it seems that dumber people have higher birthrates than smarter people.

By mathematical definition, on average people are average, and that goes for all other living creatures and everything else.

[Kristinas_Cap]

i chose brilliant because it’s a question that is clearly trying to push some sort of narrative. I have talk politics with a lot of people, and I can say with certainty whether you live in a blue state or a red state people are politically stupid. people really have no clue about what America is supposed to be. They have no clue about the founding or the philosophy behind the founding the philosophy behind the bill of rights and the constitution. America isn’t about choosing “leaders” it’s about representative governance and individual liberty. Not many seem to get that.