Our Times Tally, Volume 4 – April 2009

● Number of jobs in Canada that would be lost due to a 25 percent decline in auto exports: 155,000
● Percentage change in Canadian auto exports during the last three months of 2008: – 19
● Chance that a Canadian worker is “somewhat” or “very concerned” about losing their job this year: 1 in 4
● Since 1500 AD, number of 25-year periods in which war didn’t exist anywhere on the planet: 0
● Percentage change in global military expenditures from 1988 to 1998: – 30
● Percentage change since 1998: + 30
● Estimated number of children between the ages of 6 and 14 working for a living in the world today: 158,000,000
● Percentage of unemployed workers in Canada eligible for UI benefits in 1990: 74
● Percentage eligible for EI benefits today: 43
● Percentage of food that is wasted or never eaten in the Global South: 2
● Percentage in the United States: 30
● Chance of winning the Lotto 6/49 top prize: 1 in 13,983,816
● Chance of being struck by lightning: 1 in 700,000
● Number of convictions for violations of the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1996: 162
● Number last year: 1,191
● Income earned by temporary workers in Canada for every dollar earned by permanent workers: $0.76
● Percentage of Americans who answered “yes” or “don’t know” when asked if the phrase “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs” was written in the U.S. Constitution: 69
● Of the ten most in-demand jobs predicted for 2010, number of them that existed in 2004: 0
● Estimated number of jobs that today’s American teenagers will have by the age of 38: 12
● Percentage of Norway’s annual Gross Domestic Income given to foreign aid: 0.95
● Percentage of Canada’s: 0.28
● Number of American workers killed in 2007 from occupational injuries: 5,488
● Number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq War since 2003: 4,263
● Estimated number of American workers killed from occupational illnesses and diseases each year: 60,000
● Number of American soldiers killed in the entire Vietnam War: 58,159
● Rank of fishery workers and recyclable material collectors as the deadliest jobs in the United States: 1st, 5th
● Rank of farmers: 6th
● Ratio of cost of the U.S. government’s corporate bailout packages to Canada’s annual Gross Domestic Product: 2 to 1
● Estimated amount of wealth U.S. bank executives gave themselves in bonuses in 2008: $20,000,000,000
● Cost of providing clean water and sanitation to everyone in the Global South: $9,000,000,000
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that “major changes to the international economic system are necessary”: 69
● Amount the European Union spends on subsidies to tobacco farmers each year: $1,300,000,000
● Amount it spends on smoking prevention programs: $2,100,000
● If current trends hold, number of people who will die in the 21st century from smoking: 1,000,000,000
● Percentage of wealth owned by the richest 1 percent of British citizens when the Labour Party came to power in 1997: 25
● Percentage ten years later: 33
● Percentage of children aged 11, 13 and 15 in the Netherlands who admit using marijuana in the last year: 21
● Percentage of children the same ages in Canada who admit this: 40
● Number of Google search results for the word “capitalism”: 23,900,000
● Number for the word “socialism”: 34,600,000

Our Times Tally, inspired by Harpers Index (see www.harpers.org), is compiled by freelance writer Sean Cain.

SOURCES: 155,000 – Informetrica; – 19 – Statistics Canada; 1 in 4 – Ipsos Poll (February 9, 2009); 0 – J.S. Levy (War in the Modern Great Power System); -30, +30 – Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Yearbook 2008); 158,000,000 – UNICEF (Beyond Child Labour, Affirming Rights); 74 – Canadian Labour Congress (Left Out in the Cold, January 2009); 43 – Monica Townson and Kevin Hayes (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives); 2 – International Styrene Industry Forum (ISIF); 30 – US Department of Agriculture; 1 in 13,983,816 – Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation; 1 in 700,000 – US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; 162, 1,191 – Ontario Ministry of Labour Enforcement Statistics; $0.76 – Joy Harrison (Lakehead University); 69 – Columbia Law Survey; 0 – Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod (Did You Know?); 12 – US Department of Labor; 0.95, 0.28 – OECD Development Statistics (2007); 5,488 – US Occupational Safety and Health Administration; 4,263 – US Department of Defense; 60,000 – International Labour Organization; 58,159 – US National Archives; 1st, 5th, 6th – US Bureau of Labor Statistics; 2 to 1 – Jack Rasmus (Z Magazine, March 2009), International Monetary Fund; $20,000,000,000 – New York Times (January 2009); $9,000,000,000 – United Nations Development Programme (The State of Human Development); 69 – BBC World Service Poll (March 2009); $1,300,000,000, $2,100,000 – Luk Joosens and Martin Raw (British Medical Association); 1,000,000,000 – World Health Organization (Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2008); 25, 33 – Jim Stanford (Facts from the Fringe, July 2007); 21, 40 – UNICEF (Child Poverty in Perspective, 2007); 23,900,000, 34,600,000 – Google.com.