[PhatHead]

...the question and the answer are meaningless as a measure of civics

Totally agree - and this was true of a number of the questions on the quiz.

As for the "public goods" question, government financing is not part of that definition. Non-excludability (the correct answer on the quiz,) is. The air we breathe is a public good.

As I mentioned earlier, whether or not something is a public good ought to be one criterion for justifying public funding (not sufficient, but necessary.) But the fact that tax dollars paid for flood control levees or national defense in no way makes them public goods, or else every frivolous, wasteful and unconstitutional government program would be a public good - and they are not.

I also agree that many of these questions are best as measures of test-taking ability, and some are phrased awkwardly.

[bvw]

You assume your choice is the correct one, and that is true it meshes with the test-makers. Also it's why I don't score over 150 on IQ tests UNLESS I'm tried, sick or otherwise mentally less than normal. When I'm normal I answer correctly, when tired I answer per how the test-taker wants the answer. In other words, being fatigued makes a person more compliant

But on "public good" as I said before, I'm still more right with the alternate bad answer they provided, nor did you reply to the point I raised against the definition of public good you are applying, or the one they are applying.

Here's another reason I am right on this one:

public good

An item whose consumption is not decided by the individual consumer but by the society as a whole, and which is financed by taxation.

From BusinessDictionary.com