Sobering TV....

It's often said by people in this country that Americans are dumb asses.

This isn't true. For a start, my other half is extremely clever.

However, many Americans are dumb asses - just like many people in every other country.

I was reminded of this fact while watching an extremely interesting programme last night about the astonishingly high level of national debt in America (here for UK based people only). It was made by the person who actually signs off the national accounts (sort of like head of the National Audit Office here) so had some gravitas. It also included contributions from several former Treasury Secretaries as well as Warren Buffet (the richest man on the planet).

The conclusion was that a) we're all fucked, b) the Chinese own our asses and c) we're all fucked.

Anyway, as part of the programme they did a series of vox-pops where they asked several random people three questions. The questions were:

What do you understand by the term 'Trade Deficit'?
What is the national debt?
How much do you save?

Obviously the ones shown were selected for their 'duuuuuuuuh' facial expressions (after all, why make a programme about educating people on the debt if they already know about it), but one girl in particular stood out.

Her answers were:

'Errrr......I dunno'
'Errrr......about three billion???' (only ten trillion out, my dear)

and my favourite,

'What? Like money and stuff?'

Fantastic. Especially 'and stuff' as if somehow the programme makers wanted to know how many nectar points she had. Dumb girl in a turquoise t-shirt, I salute you! :)