● Statistical correlation found globally since 1960 between free market economics and the fostering of democracy: 0
● Percentage decline in the average number of hours worked per week in the United States between 1900 and 1950: 31
● Average number of hours of work per week in 2012 if the workweek had declined by this same rate since 1950: 25
● Percentage change in the amount of daily leisure time for an average Canadian since 1986: 0
● Percentage of American workers who admit to checking work email messages outside of work hours: 60
● Number of Canadians who are millionaires: 180,000
● Estimated percentage change in the number of Canadian millionaires by the year 2020: + 38
● International rank of Canada in having the most billionaires: 10
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that “the widening incomes gap undermines Canadian values”: 71
● Percentage of Canadians who support higher taxes for the richest income earners: 83
● Number of American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001: 6,488
● Number of American women killed by their husbands or boyfriends during the same period: 11,766
● Number of corporations that owned over 90% of U.S. newspaper, magazine, TV and radio media in 1983: 50
● Number of corporations that own over 90% of U.S. media today: 6
● Percentage of the Canadian internet service market owned by the six largest media corporations in the country: 75
● Number of domestic workers employed by households in the world today: 100 million
● Percentage of them who are women: 82
● Chance that a senior citizen in Canada today reports having “no close friends or family members”: 1 in 10
● Amount of wealth promised to vulnerable American home owners in relief funds after the 2008 financial crash: $50 billion
● Amount that has actually been spent so far: $3.7 billion
● Chance that a home in the United States is currently unoccupied: 1 in 7
● Estimated number of Americans who are currently homeless: 750,000
● Number of unoccupied homes in the United States for each homeless person: 25
● Chance that an affordable housing developer in the U.S. that receives government funding is a for-profit corporation: 2 in 3
● Factor by which the global youth employment rate is higher than the adult rate: 3
● Percentage of Canadians who agree with the implementation of a tax on non-currency financial transactions: 74
● Total amount of non-currency financial transactions made in Canada last year: $1.41 trillion
● Gross Domestic Product of Canada last year: $1.73 trillion
● Number of environmental activists throughout the world assassinated during the last ten years: 711
● Of these, number that took place in Brazil: 365
● Percentage increase in the Dow Jones stock market index since Barack Obama became President in 2009: 61
● Percentage increase during Ronald Reagan’s first term of office from 1981 to 1985: 30
● Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP in the U.S. last year: 12.6
● Most recent year in which corporate profits as a percentage of GDP was this high: 1950
● Wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP in the U.S. last year: 43.7
● Most recent year in which wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP was this low: 1929
● Year in which the federal government of Canada passed the Access to Information Act: 1983
● Number of times the Act was been modernized since then to take advantage new communications technologies: 0
● International ranking of Canada in the area of freedom of information: 51
● International ranking of Colombia: 45
Our Times Tally is written by union communications and media consultant Sean Cain (www.seanc60.sg-host.com).
