"I don't think the point is that if you make some effort to eat at Outback rather then bistro bis you're suddenly in touch...it's more like...try travelling somewhere where outback is your only option for going out for dinner. That's why I've been to those places. I have family and friends who talk about NASCAR, so even though I've never seen a race, I know who Jimmie Johnson is. You don't have to be interested in the STUFF, per se, to be interested in people and places where the experience is different from the bubble here. "

I say this gently, but I don't have enough vacation time to go to those places. I like to vacation in places with historical significance. I'm not interested in spending any of my 3 weeks off in rural America.

Anonymous wrote:Question: What do they mean as "typical: 9"?

A typical (average) score for someone that fits that category would be a nine, even though the range of scores that could fit into that description is much broader.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all well and good, but (and I am speaking as someone who got 24), who are they to determine what the REAL America is? Who cares? Why isn't our America the REAL America?

I think some posters are misunderstanding. Murray is not saying one is the "real" America and one is not. He is speaking of mainstream or average American life, which many of us are completely insulated from. As for "who cares," I think the point is that there is an enormous gulf that has grown tremendously over the past few decades, and we should all care about that.

I guess I do care but I'm sure not going to start watching NASCAR or eating at Outback just to get in touch with "average" America. The whole point of going to a great school and then grad school is to become highly educated and wealthy.

I don't think the point is that if you make some effort to eat at Outback rather then bistro bis you're suddenly in touch...it's more like...try travelling somewhere where outback is your only option for going out for dinner. That's why I've been to those places. I have family and friends who talk about NASCAR, so even though I've never seen a race, I know who Jimmie Johnson is. You don't have to be interested in the STUFF, per se, to be interested in people and places where the experience is different from the bubble here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is all well and good, but (and I am speaking as someone who got 24), who are they to determine what the REAL America is? Who cares? Why isn't our America the REAL America?

I think some posters are misunderstanding. Murray is not saying one is the "real" America and one is not. He is speaking of mainstream or average American life, which many of us are completely insulated from. As for "who cares," I think the point is that there is an enormous gulf that has grown tremendously over the past few decades, and we should all care about that.

I guess I do care but I'm sure not going to start watching NASCAR or eating at Outback just to get in touch with "average" America. The whole point of going to a great school and then grad school is to become highly educated and wealthy.

I think he's an idiot.

31. The description fits. Glad I went fishing.

51 -- and I don't watch TV / movies or drink beer. I deeply regret not fishing in the past 5 years.

8. I'm not surprised.

I was also told I am upper class
do not know why, because I know I am not.
Except that I know I was born a princess, just taken to the wrong house after birth.

Anonymous wrote:Holy Crap, I scored a 70! I didn't read through every single page to see whether anyone else scored this high but I couldn't find anyone. I need to start the following thread:

"I grew up in a trailer park, ranaway from home (and didn't go back), worked to put my self through college and now I am a millionaire -- ask me anything."

Anonymous wrote:59

Grew up poor (but didn't really know it!) and comfortably in the middle class now.

Oh, and first generation American.

Holy Crap, I scored a 70! I didn't read through every single page to see whether anyone else scored this high but I couldn't find anyone. I need to start the following thread:

"I grew up in a trailer park, ranaway from home (and didn't go back), worked to put my self through college and now I am a millionaire -- ask me anything."

59

Grew up poor (but didn't really know it!) and comfortably in the middle class now.

I got a 37 and fit the "second-generation (or more) upper middle class who gets out a lot" description, though I didn't grow up in the continental U.S. and that skewed things a little (e.g. where I grew up there was no such thing as varsity letters).

I do think that the "bubble" works both ways, though. The social divide is not just because the "elite" is out of touch with the "real" or "mainstream" America. "Middle America" has its own bubble - how would many of the "real, down-to-earth" people that would get an average score on this test do on a test of how acquainted or insulated they are from people different to them. How many are friends with people of other religions/political leanings? How many are friends with people from other countries/speakers of other languages? How many have any familiarity with other cultures/countries/cuisines?

And, lastly, in terms of numbers, that supposed NASCAR-loving, Evangelical "mainstream" is probably becoming less so, given the declining proportion of the white population and the spreading out of the "non-white" Hispanic and Asian immigrants across previously "all-American" parts of the country. I think this kind of quiz is premised on a skewed (very white Christian) perspective of what's the real America and the mainstream.

Question: What do they mean as "typical: 9"?