Our Times Tally, Volume 1 – December 2008

● Percentage of Canadians who believe the economy will soon fall into a recession: 64
● Percentage of Americans who believe the economy will soon fall into a depression: 59
● Number of labour union activists throughout the world murdered in 2006: 144
● Of these murders, number that took place in Colombia: 78
● Cost of President George Bush’s 2008 corporate bailout package: $700 billion
● Total increase in wealth of the 400 richest Americans since George Bush came to power in 2001: $670 billion
● Amount of wealth it would take each year to eradicate global hunger and malnutrition: $30 billion
● Average Canadian household debt for every dollar of disposable income: $1.08
● Number of workers who died in the construction of the Panama Canal from 1881 to 1889: 27,500
● Percentage of U.S. managers who would “welcome a union or do nothing to stop it” during an organizing drive: 59
● Percentage of Canadian managers who said this: 37
● Ratio of average CEO compensation to that of a minimum wage worker in the United States in 1965: 51 to 1
● Ratio in 2007: 866 to 1
● Estimated ratio of average income of a feudal lord to that of a peasant serf in 13th century Lancaster, England: 16 to 1
● Hourly minimum wage in Canada in 2008 if it had risen at the same rate of real GDP per capita since 1976: $13.12
● Time it would take a top Canadian executive to earn a full-time minimum-wage worker’s annual pay, in hours: 4
● Time it would take a minimum wage Disney worker in Haiti to earn company CEO Bob Iger’s annual pay, in years: 39,903
● Hourly minimum wages in the United States and Australia, in U.S. dollars: $6.55, $10.44
● Current unemployment rates in the same countries: 6.1%, 4.3%
● Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted single-payer health care: $286 billion
● Number of Tim Horton’s donut shops in Canada: 2,750
● Number of payday loan storefronts in Canada: 1,300
● Percentage of Canadians who have a “favorable opinion” of payday loan companies: 11
● Percentage of global land-based property owned by women: 1
● Amount in subsidies given to General Motors by the federal and provincial governments in March 2005: $450 million
● Number of Canadian General Motors workers laid off since March 2005: 4,400
● Chance that a child in the world today will never go to school: 1 in 3
● Percentage of Canadians who believe “unions should be more involved with promoting equality for women”: 78
● Percentage of Palestinians who believe that their “general economic condition” is either “bad” or “mediocre”: 96.5
● Number of people in the world who currently live in “water-stressed” areas: 700 million
● Number who will live in these areas by 2025 if current trends hold: 3 billion
● Percentage of parliamentary seats held by women in Canada: 24.3
● Percentage held by women in Rwanda: 45.3
● Number of Canadians who die each year from air pollution, according to the Canadian Medical Association: 21,000
● Ratio of income of richest 20% of Canadians to poorest 20%, before income taxes and transfer payments: 27 to 1
● Ratio of income of richest 20% of Canadians to poorest 20%, after income taxes and transfer payments: 8 to 1
● Average number of mandatory anti-union meetings held by U.S. employers during an organizing campaign: 11
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that Stephen Harper has “effectively explained the mission in Afghanistan”: 27
● Number of people under the age of eighteen executed in Iran since 1990: 19
● Number of people under the age of eighteen executed in the United States since 1990: 19

Our Times Tally is compiled by freelance writer Sean Cain.

SOURCES: 64 – Angus Reid (Oct 4, 2008); 59 – CNN/Opinion Research Corporation (Oct 6, 2008); 144, 78 – International Trade Union Confederation (2007 Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights); $700 billion, $670 billion – Senator Bernie Sanders (www.sanders.senate.gov); $30 billion – United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization; $1.08 – Statistics Canada; 27,500 – Panama Canal Authority; 59, 37 – Seymour Martin Lipset and Noah Meltz, The Paradox of American Unionism: Why Americans Like Unions More Than Canadians Do But Join Much Less; 51 to 1 – Wall Street Journal Survey; 866 to 1 – Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy (2008); 16 to 1 – C. Dyer, Standards of Living in the Middle Ages; $13.12 – Statistics Canada, indexmundi.com; 4 – Hugh Mackenzie (Timing is Everything: Comparing the Earnings of Canada’s Highest-Paid CEOs and the Rest of Us); 39,903 – Murray MacAdam and David Phillips; $6.55, $10.44 – World Bank and Australian Fair Pay Commission; 6.1%, 4.3% – Economagic.com (Economic Time Series); $286 billion – Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen; 2,750 – www.timhortons.com; 1,300 – CBC News Online (Oct 4, 2006); 11 – Environics Research; 1 – Women’s Economic Justice Report on Guaranteed Livable Income; $450 million, 4,400 – Sam Gindin (The Bullet, November 25, 2005), Toronto Star (Apr 28, 2008); 1 in 3 – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; 78 – Canadian Labour Congress, Canadians Talk About Unions; 96.5 – Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (Jan 25, 2007); 700 million, 3 billion – UNDP 2006 Report; 24.3, 45.3 – UNDP 2006 Report; 21,000 – Toronto Star (Aug 13, 2008); 27 to 1, 8 to 1 – CAW Research from Statistics Canada, Income in Canada and Canadian Economic Observer; 11– Kate Bronfenbrenner (Cornell University); 27 – Angus Reid Poll (Feb 28, 2007); 19, 19 – Amnesty International (Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty).