Are most people really this stupid?

[Tomenable]

@Arvistro, here is the link (chapter 2): http://skills.oecd.org/documents/OECD_Skills_Outlook_2013.pdf

There were other similar studies before. Maybe Italy fared better in one of earlier (or later) studies?

edit: what is the trend for this?

Depends on country, I guess.

For example I found info that Poland had better scores in 2001 than in 2013, a worrying trend.

Czech Republic and Slovakia had very good scores in 2013. Finland and the Netherlands even better.

Estonia was high in the ranking. There is no info on Latvia and Lithuania. Hungary had good scores.

Germany and Austria had similar scores to Poland (= bad, all 3 countries below OECD average...).

 

[Tomenable]

I was surprised that Germany was low. And the Netherlands was so much higher than Germany... Surprising. It's no so funny when you think that Merkel, who is partially responsible for the current migrant crisis, was elected largely by functional illiterates... But the USA was not much higher than Germany (I actually expected it to be lower than Germany in the ranking).

France was even lower.

 

[arvistro]

Yaay Finland!! They have a great educational system, they say. At 16-24 they are doing even slightly better than Japan.
This is a good news. Means countries should follow Finnish educational system and they are gonna be alright.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/finland-education/

Probably part of it is still genetic. 2-3% are under Level 1 even in Finland, and another ~10% are level 1. Although hmm, Japan has only 0.6% and 4.3%, so with even better education maybe a population can even beat that?
Since Koreans are of Finnish level.

edit: I think Latvians and Lithuanians if included would be as usual slightly or more under Estonians. I could bet on that.

 

[bicicleur 2]

Yaay Finland!! They have a great educational system, they say. At 16-24 they are doing even slightly better than Japan.
This is a good news. Means countries should follow Finnish educational system and they are gonna be alright.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/finland-education/

Probably part of it is still genetic. 2-3% are under Level 1 even in Finland, and another ~10% are level 1. Although hmm, Japan has only 0.6% and 4.3%, so with even better education maybe a population can even beat that?
Since Koreans are of Finnish level.

edit: I think Latvians and Lithuanians if included would be as usual slightly or more under Estonians. I could bet on that.

Japan may have a good education system, it seems to me Japanese don't use common sense to take initiatives.
They prefer to hide themselves in the mass and to be conformist.

 

[arvistro]

Japan may have a good education system, it seems to me Japanese don't use common sense to take initiatives.
They prefer to hide themselves in the mass and to be conformist.

Maybe this is a trade off one should take - develop bright talents and leave the rest stupid OR have plus/minus equally mediocre but smart enough mass.