Our Times Tally, Volume 7 – November 2009

● Percentage of Canadians who say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of respect for nurses: 97
● Percentage of Canadians who say the same about business executives: 48
● Number of prisoners locked in solitary confinement on any given day in the United States: 200,000
● Percentage of them living with mental illness: 60
● Number of Canadians who are officially unemployed: 1.6 million
● Number of jobs currently lost in Canada every minute: 1.2
● Percentage of total U.S. federal government expenditures that is spent on foreign aid: 0.9
● Percentage that a majority of Americans believe is spent on foreign aid: 25
● Percentage increase in the number of personal bankruptcies in Canada from June 2008 to June 2009: 54
● Number of developed countries around the world that have not officially fallen into recession during the past year: 1
● Percentage increase in the minimum wage in Honduras instituted by former leftist President Manual Zelaya on 1/4/09: 62
● Date on which he was deposed in a right-wing coup: 28/6/09
● Number of work days lost to strikes per month in Canada during the first quarter of 2009: 271,370
● Number lost per month during the first quarter of 2008: 137,780
● Number of malnourished people throughout the world in 2006: 873 million
● Number today: 1.02 billion
● Cost of a 30 ml bottle of the world’s most expensive retail perfume, “Monogram” from Clive Christian: $14,500
● Using this amount of wealth, number of children in Africa who could be saved from starvation every year: 147
● Percentage of Americans who believe that capitalism is a superior system than socialism: 53
● Average number of Canadians who die each day from injuries at work: 4
● Percentage of total income in the United States earned by the richest 1 percent of people in 2008: 23.5
● Latest year since statistics were recorded that the number was this high: 1928
● Factor by which the poverty rate of persons with disabilities in Canada is higher than that of the general population: 2.5
● Chance that a First Nations child under the age of 18 in Ontario lives in poverty: 1 in 2
● Rank of Canada in the 2008 UNDP Human Development Report: 4
● Rank of Canada if the report only included First Nations Peoples: 78
● Between 1990 and 2005, chance that a country around the world has experienced an increase in income inequality: 7 in 10
● Chance that Canadians believe they should directly elect their Senators: 2 in 3
● Chance they believe the Senate should be abolished altogether: 1 in 3
● Compensation given to the top five executives of the largest 20 U.S. banks that received bailout money in 2008: $3.2 billion
● Factor by which the average executive compensation is larger than President Obama’s $400,000 annual salary: 34
● Factor by which it is larger than the U.S. federal investigators who regulate the banking industry: 85
● Percentage of Canadians who currently support the military mission in Afghanistan: 34
● Number of American citizens who died from terrorist attacks in 2008: 19
● Estimated number of Americans aged 25 to 64 who die every year due to lack of health insurance: 27,000
● Chance that a bankruptcy in the United States is caused by unpaid medical bills: 3 in 5
● Chance that those declaring bankruptcy already had health insurance: 3 in 4
● Average amount spent by the insurance industry lobbying against President Obama’s health care plan, per day: $1.4 million
● Total cost of property stolen in thefts, burglaries and robberies in the United States each year: $18 billion
● Estimated ratio of costs of white collar, corporate crime to that of all thefts, burglaries and robberies combined: 10 to 1
● Percentage of Canadians who believe that “global warming is a theory that has not yet been proven”: 16
● Factor by which Cuba’s annual GDP growth rate outpaced that of the United States in 2008: 11

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

SOURCES: 97, 48 – Angus Reid Poll (Aug 26, 2009); 200,000, 60 – American Friends Service Committee; 1.6 million, 1.2 – Keepjobsincanada.ca; 0.9, 25 – Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (Worldviews: American Public Opinion and Foreign Policy); 54 – Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada; 1 – Jim Stanford, Facts from the Fringe (Sep 11, 2009); 62 – Banco Central de Honduras; 28/6/09 – New York Times; 271,370, 137,780 – Statistics Canada; 873 million, 1.02 billion – United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization; $14,500 – Clive.com; 147 – Action Against Hunger; 53 – Rasmussen Poll (April 2009); 4 – Canadian Labour Congress; 23.5, 1928 – U.S. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; 2.5 – Human Resources and Social Development Canada; 1 in 2 – Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres; 4 – United Nations Development Programme (Human Development Report, 2008); 78 – First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada; 7 in 10 – International Labour Organization (World of Work Report); 2 in 3, 1 in 3 – Angus Reid Poll (Aug 30, 2009); $3.2 billion – Forbes.com (Sep 2, 2009); 34, 85 – Institute for Policy Studies; 34 – Ekos Poll (July 2009); 19 – National Counterterrorism Center; 27,000 – National Academies of Science; 3 in 5, 3 in 4 – American Journal of Medicine and Harvard University; $1.4 million – Fred Feldman (Left Views); $18 billion – Federal Bureau of Investigation; 10 to 1 – Encyclopaedia Britannica; 16 – Angus Reid Poll (July 28, 2009); 11 – U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Banco Central de Cuba.