Psychiatry and social dynamics aren’t measured that way - which is not to say that they cannot be measured. Each test has its own scale, and they are not often comparable with each other - but that doesn’t make them useless. They don’t offer a unit of measurement that’s meaningful outside of that particular test - but then again, neither does the MMPI.
The test I pointed towards does, indeed, measure level of statism - nor do I believe that it’s the only test of its type. Have you even looked at it? In case you merely missed it, it’s available here. It measures political attitudes, including a scale for statism.
That would measure out as true or false - units of measurement would not be relevant here, either.
Sorry - I’m getting bored with your straw man. Find another.
Danno, waiting for someone to stomp their feet and say it really loud.
I think his point is that these tests dont really measure anything. For example, say I agree to all 5 of the economic questions. For the personal, I agree to all of them except for “There should be no laws regarding sex for consenting adults.” It tells me that my personal score is 80%. What does that mean? 80% what? It looks like I am “10% statist.” What does that mean?
Then, say another person takes the test, and puts the same answers for economics. In the personal issues, he agrees with all except for “Repeal laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs.” It tells him he has also scored 80% on the personal scale, and is the same on the statist/libertarian scale.
Would you say that we are “just as statist” or something like that?
Tests like this just give arbitrary values to something that is not quantifiable. I am not saying they have no use, or cant be interesting - for example it may be able to say you are most likely a libertarian or conservative etc. But saying you are 10% statist or something like that is just nonsense - it doesnt mean anything.
That’s not the point he’s claimed, but I’ll tackle this one.
Yes, indeed, these tests do measure something - in this case, how statist you are, relative to the other people who take this test. For purposes of this test, you score 90 libertarian, 10 statist - my buddy Scott would probably score about 30 libertarian, 70 statist - he’s more statist than you are.
Pretty much any attitude, tendency, or psychological trait can be measured. While I have a fair bit of scorn for most practitioners of psychiatry, this is one thing they do pretty well - evaluate people. It’s a known science, and there are several very well-designed tests to evaluate your personality for particular traits. Evaluation for degrees of statism would be fairly easy.
The MMPI (Minnesota Multiphase Personality Index) has some glaring flaws, but it’s an industry standard, and generally, fairly accurate. I’ve no doubt that some grad student has devised one to measure political stances, and that it’s been peer-reviewed, and is fairly accurate.
Even without such tests, statism is a comparable factor. I’m more statist than a full-bore anarchist, but considerably less statist than an average Democrat. One doesn’t need a unit of measure to evaluate that - just as one doesn’t need a spectrometer to tell whether this or that painting has a more reddish hue to it.
The demand for a unit of measurement is, to be blunt, a straw man.
Is Mises less or more statist than FDR or Keynes? How can you tell, without naming a unit of measurement? If you can tell, a unit of measurement is superfluous. If you can’t, perhaps you need to do some more background reading.
My original contention - that Democrats, as a whole, tended to be more statist than Republicans, but not by a degree I consider important, stands. Deal.
