Our Times Tally, Volume 10 – July 2010

● Year in which a Toronto Globe newspaper editorial stated that “Unions have outlived their usefulness”: 1886
● Percentage of workers in Canada who belong to a union: 30
● Number of new workers who must be unionized each year for Canada to maintain its 30% union density rate: 80,000
● Estimated number of jobs that will be created in South Africa due to the 2010 World Cup being held there: 415,000
● Number of people in South Africa who are officially unemployed: 4.5 million
● Price of the cheapest ticket for an opening round World Cup match, in American dollars: $365
● Number of South Africans who live on less than $2 a day: 21.5 million
● Average annual income of a Nike soccer ball production worker in India: $600
● Number of years which they would have to work to earn the annual income of Nike CEO Mark Parker: 12,701
● Before-tax profits of Canada’s financial sector in 2009: $44 billion
● Estimated cost of providing housing and income supports to every homeless person in Canada: $3.5 billion
● Percentage of Americans who say they’re suffering from “debt-related stress”: 46
● Total female income as a percentage of male income in Saudi Arabia: 17
● Total female income as a percentage of male income in Kenya: 82
● International rank of Canada in having the highest percentage of female income to that of male income: 40th
● Chance that an American worker currently is or has been a victim of workplace bullying: 1 in 3
● Chance that a bullied worker never reports the bullying to their employer: 2 in 5
● Percentage of Ontarians who are opposed to the planned Harmonized Sales Tax (HST): 74
● Percentage of British Columbians who are: 82
● As of June 4, estimated amount of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico from the well disaster, in litres: 133 million
● As of 05/28/2010, estimated total economic cost of the oil spill: $980 billion
● Date on which BP CEO Tony Hayward said the environmental impact would be “very, very modest”: 05/17/2010
● Percentage of Americans who believe BP’s response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is “good or “very good”: 24
● Percentage of Americans who believe that compensation received by Wall Street executives is “reasonable”: 27
● Percentage of 13 and 15 year-olds in Britain who admitted being drunk at least twice during the past year: 22
● Percentage of 13 and 15 year-olds in France who admitted this: 11
● Estimated amount of wealth that will be spent by the federal government to host the June 2010 G8 Summit: $1.3 billion
● Total amount spent by the federal government toward the Haitian Earthquake relief efforts since January 2010: $305 million
● Total amount the government of Haiti spends each year paying interest on its foreign debt: $57 million
● Total amount in foreign aid given to Haiti each year for health care, education and social services combined: $39 million
● Percentage of the “service life” of public infrastructure in Canada that has been used up: 79
● Current cost of eliminating this “infrastructural deficit”: $123 billion
● Household debt as a percentage of disposable income in Canada in 2009: 144
● Chance that a Canadian CEO believes that higher taxes are necessary to reduce the federal deficit: 3 in 5
● Percentage of all public sector managerial positions in Canada occupied by people of colour: 4
● Chance that a Canadian citizen believes that detainees handed over to Afghan authorities have been tortured: 3 in 5
● Percentage of all agricultural land in Brazil owned by the wealthiest three percent of the population: 75
● Number of hours spent working each week by an average employee in Greece: 41
● Number of hours by an average employee in Germany: 27.5
● Estimated workweek hours for an average peasant serf in 13th century England: 31
● Estimated workweek hours for an average person living on earth 20,000 years ago: 15

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

SOURCES: 1886 – Toronto Globe (May 6, 1886); 30 – Statistics Canada (2009); 80,000 – Centre for Research on Work and Society (York University); 415,000 – Government of South Africa; 4.5 million – CIA World Fact Book; $365 – FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association; 21.5 million – The Economist (June 2010); $600, 12,701 – International Labour Rights Forum (June 2010); $44 billion – Jim Stanford (Facts from the Fringe, April 2010); $3.5 billion – CBC’s The Fifth Estate (November 2004); 46 – Association Press/GfK Poll (May 11, 2010); 17, 82, 40th – OECD (Gender, Institutions and Development Database, 2009); 1 in 3, 2 in 5 – Workplace Bullying Institute-Zogby Poll (2007); 74, 82 – Ipsos Reid Poll (December 2009); 133 million – Associated Press (June 4, 2010); $980 billion – British Petroleum; 05/17/2010 – Daily Telegraph (May 25, 2010); 24 – USA Today/Gallup Poll (May 2010); 27 – Ipsos Reid Poll (September 2009); 22, 11 – World Health Organization (2008); $1.3 billion – Toronto Star (June 7, 2010); $305 million – Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada; $57 million, $39 million – Richard Kim and The Center for International Policy (2008); 79, $123 billion – Federation of Canadian Municipalities (2008); 144 – Statistics Canada (2009); 3 in 5 – Bruce Campbell (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, April 2010); 4 – Grace-Edward Galabuzi (York University); 3 in 5 – Canwest News Service (May 2010); 75 – Jason Mark (Multinational Monitor, 2001); 41, 27.5 – OECD (Labour Database, 2009); 31 – Juliet Schor (Boston College); 15 – The Last Two Million Years (Reader’s Digest Association).