Our Times Tally, Volume 22 – April 2013

● Additional revenue raised each year if federal corporate taxes were at the same rate they were in 2007: $8 billion
● Annual cost of lifting all low-income seniors in Canada above the official poverty line: $1.4 billion
● Amount of legal costs currently faced by the Canadian government from NAFTA-based corporate lawsuits: $2.5 billion
● Percentage change in average household income in the United States since the 2008 financial crisis: – 2.5
● Percentage change in the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the same period: + 72
● Percentage change in real median family income in Canada since 1980: 0
● Number of Canadians who are currently “food insecure”: 1.1 million
● Estimated percentage increase in the number of Canadians with at least $30 million in wealth over the next ten years: + 35
● Factor by which university tuition costs are increasing faster than the official rate of inflation in Canada: 3
● Ratio of average housing prices to average incomes in Canada in 1988: 3 to 1
● Ratio of average housing prices to average incomes in Canada in 2010: 4.5 to 1
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that same-sex relationships are “morally acceptable”: 64
● Percentage of Americans who do: 40
● Percentage of Americans who believe that the death penalty is “morally acceptable”: 58
● Estimated number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli authorities each year: 600
● Percentage of them who are held in detention without bail: 94
● International rank of Canada as the highest per capita military arms exporter: 15
● International rank of Sweden: 1
● Current number of operational nuclear warheads owned by the U.S. military: 2,150
● Number of waterways that the proposed Keystone pipeline will intersect with if completed: 2,000
● Amount spent by the federal government in 2011 for advertisements promoting the “safety” of tar sand production: $9 million
● Percentage of Canadians who believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a hidden agenda: 68
● Percentage of Canadians who voted Conservative in the 2011 federal election that believe this: 43
● Number of American military veterans who are currently homeless: 62,000
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that banks and corporations have the greatest amount of influence over government: 90
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that workers and unions have the greatest amount of influence over government: 4
● Chance that a Canadian voter has “ever heard” of the concept of financial transaction taxes: 1 in 5
● Chance that a French voter has: 9 in 10
● Number of slaves in the world today: 29 million
● Year in which the state of Mississippi ratified the 13th Amendment, officially abolishing slavery: 2013
● Percentage change in management wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP in the U.S. since 1964: + 58.5
● Percentage change in employee wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP in the U.S. during the same time: – 34.2
● Current federal minimum wage in the United States: $7.25
● Federal minimum wage in the United States today if it had increased at the same rate of productivity since 1960: $22
● Percentage of Canadians who are officially in the labour force: 66.6
● Latest year when this number was this low: 2002
● Current number of unemployed people in Canada for every job vacancy: 5.8
● Percentage of 18 to 29 year-old Americans who have a positive view of the word “capitalism”: 46
● Percentage who have a positive view of the word “socialism”: 49
● Average monthly benefit for a single person living on social assistance in Ontario: $632
● Minimum cost of a dog wedding by “Doggie I Do’s,” a Toronto-based company that offers dog wedding services: $4,000

Our Times Tally is written by union communications and media consultant Sean Cain (www.labourmedia.org).

SOURCES: $8 billion, $1.4 billion – Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Alternative Federal Budget, 2013); $2.5 billion – Institute for Policy Studies (March 10, 2013); – 2.5 – United States Department of Commerce (Census Bureau, Historical Income Tables); + 72 – Dow Jones Industrial Average Index; 0 – Statistics Canada (CANSIM tables 376-0036 and 380-0016); 1.1 million – Canadian Community Health Survey (2011); + 35 – Knight Frank (Wealth Report, 2013); 3 – Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; 3 to 1, 4.5 to 1 – Statistics Canada and Bank of Canada (2010); 64, 40, 58 – Angus Reid Poll (January 31, 2013); 600, 94 – Defence for Children International; 15, 1, 2,150 – Stockholm International Peace Research Institute; 2,000 – People’s World (December 2011); $9 million – CBC News (November 2012); 68, 43 – Angus Reid Poll (November 2012); 62,000 – U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2012); 90, 4, 1 in 5, 9 in 10 – International Trade Union Confederation (Global Poll 2012); 29 million – Siddharth Kara (Harvard University); 2013 – ABC News (February 18, 2013); + 58.5, – 34.2 – U.S. National Income and Product Accounts (Bureau of Economic Analysis) and U.S. Federal Reserve; $7.25, $22 – Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (March 18, 2013); 66.6, 2002 – Jim Stanford (Facts from the Fringe, February 2013); 5.8 – Statistics Canada (The Daily, February 19, 2013); 46, 49 – Pew Research Survey (2012); $632 – National Council of Welfare; $4,000 – Modern Dog Magazine.