Factoids to get Us Thinking

Factoids to Get Us Thinking!

Read all the way down. Lots of Info on Lots of different Issues.

* Military Spending 2004
$13.0 Billion (Cuba, Iran Libiya, N. Korea, Syria, and Sudan)
$56.0 Billion (China)
$65.2 Billion (Russia)
$399.1 Billion (USA)
(Sojourners, Sept-Oct 2005, p.9. Sources: Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation; Stockholm International Peace Institute)

* USA IS NOT #1.
Rich Nations Giving: The United Nations asks Rich Nations to give 0.7% of GNP to address extreme hunger and poverty. Ranked by rates of generosity, here's the percentage rich nations gave in 2003:
Norway 0.92%
Sweden 0.70%
France 0.41%
UK 0.34%
Germany 0.28%
Canada 0.26%
Japan 0.20%
Italy 0.16%
USA 0.14%
(Sojourners, Aug 2005, p.9. source: UN Statistics Division. www.milleniumindicators.un.org)

* Not even counting what President Bush is spending on the war on terrorism, in FY 2004 we will spend $803 billion, 47% of all Federal expenditures on the military: $345 billion on previous commitments and $459 billion on current operations. We will only spend $593 billion of the $1.7 trillion federal budget on human resources (www.warresisters.org).

* If our planet's population of six billion (+) were reduced to the size of a Village of 1000 persons, 75 villagers would have a college degree. 700 villagers would be unable to read or write, and 50% of the village's children would never have been inside a classroom (Macionis, Sociology 1996:1-2).

* The 358 billionaires on the planet listed by Forbes in 1994 had a combined net worth equal to the combined income of the bottom 45% of the world population (Barnet 1994:7; Korten 2002:94).

* GDP and Life Expectancy: Japan $39,640 (80 yrs.); USA $26,980 (78 yrs.); Spain $13,580 (77 yrs.) (Brazil $3640 (67 yrs.); Bangladesh $240 (58 yrs.); Ethiopia $100 (47 yrs.)

* "1.2 billion people live on less than a $1.00 a day, and 2.8 billion live on less than $2.00 a day. 2.4 billion have no access to decent sanitation. Almost a billion lack access to decent water sources. 854 million adults are illiterate. 11 million children die each year from easily preventable causes" (UNHDR 2001. Cf. Vitillo 2002)

"[W]omen make up about sixty percent of the world's population and perform nearly two thirds of all work hours, but receive only one-tenth of world income and own less than one percent of world property" (U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in Renzetti and Curran 1998, p. 252).

* Men get more power wealth and prestige, but men have three times the suicide rate of women, three times the severe mental illness rate and six times the alcoholism rate. Men commit eighty percent of serious crimes and make up ninety percent of prison inmates. Men are far more likely to suffer from stress related illness: ulcers, hypertension and asthma. Men die seven years sooner than women (Robertson 1989:228-229).

* In the late 1990s in the USA. MEDIAN NET WORTH: $43,800 for whites; $3,700 for blacks (Shipler 1997:18)

* WHERE YOUR INCOME TAX MONEY REALLY GOES: 47% Defense spending (24% past military and 23% current military); 34% Human Resources; 14% General Government; 5% physical resources (U.S. Federal Budget FY 2001:"Analytical Perspectives," FY 2002 Projections; War resisters League, Snapshot in Sojourners, Sept/Oct 2001 p.17)

* The Aging of the World's Population: In 1990, 4% of the USA was over 65 yeras of age and 40% was under 18. By 2000, 13% was over 65 and 26% was ubder 18. By 2050, 20% will be over 65 and 24% will be uner 18.

*Global Aging: in 1950 8.1% of the world's population was over 60 years of age and 34.4% was under 14. By 2050 22.1% will be over 60, and 19.6% will be under 14 (U.S. News and World Report 3/1/99)

* The Richest Countries are aging fastest. In 1950 there were 4 youths in the world for every senior. By 2050, the elderly will outnumber the young. By 2050, 1 of every 5 people in the world will be over 60. The very old (85 yrs +) will increase sixfold. (U.S. News & World, 3/1/99)

* There are now an estimated 629 million people in the world age 60 and over. By 2050, that number is projected to grow to almost 2 billion, and- for the first time in human history - the world will have more people over 60 than children under age 15. From 2002 to 2050 the percentage of the population that is elderly will increase from 10% to 30% in China; from 16% to 27% in the USA; from 7% to 24% in Mexico; from 8% to 21% in India ("Population Aging, 2002," a UN Population Division report cited in Sojourners. July/August 2002, Pp. 34-35)

* "One of the most significant facts to emerge in the early 21st century is that in most married-couple families, both partners work. In 1999, 57% of U.S. families with at least one child under the age of 6 had two working parents. That figure was up from 32% in 1976. Of those families with children between the ages of 6 and 17, 70% consisted of an employed mother and father (U.S. Bureau of the Census 2000b). The dual earner family is now the most common type of U.S. family. By 1990, the percentage of households that consisted of a married couple dependent on a sole male breadwinner had dropped to less than 14%, from a high of almost 60% in 1950 (Gerson, 1993)." [Newman 2002:209]

* 1,400: Estimated number of U.S. College students who die from alcohol related accidents each year. 70,000: Number of sex assaults and date rapes attributed to Campus drinking (Time Magazine 4/22/02. P. 18).

* "Our entertainment media too often exaggerate and even celebrate violence. Children see 8,000 murders a year and 100,000 other acts of violence before they leave elementary school" (USCB, "Confronting a Culture of Violence," in Origins, Dec. 1994:423).

* Do the Math. In the USA, the average person watches four hours of TV a Day (World Almanac and Book of Facts 2002 280; Gitlin 2002:16). Four hours a day equals one out of every six years. In sixty years, that's ten years of watching TV and two and a half to three of those years are spent watching commercials (Malloy, S.J.).

* In 1983, 50 companies control all major media outlets; by 1992, 20 companies. By 2000, 5 companies dominate all (see Tom Shanks, S.J., in Rossi and Soukup 1994:45).

* WHO OWNS THE MEDIA? In North American media there are 1,800 daily newspapers, 11,000 magazine, 11,000 radio stations, 2,000 TV stations, and 3,000 book publishers. In 1984 50 companies owned a controlling interest, in 1987 26; in 1996, 10. In 2002, 6 companies (Snapshot in Sojourners July/August 2002, P.17). [Shanks was right!]

* “As of July 2003 there were 260 million pages of pornography online, an increase of 1800% since 1998. Porn amounts to about 7% of the 3.3 billion Web pages indexed by Google. Americans rent upwards of 800 million pornographic videos and DVDs a year, compared with 3.6 billion nonpornograhic videos. Nearly 1 in 5 rentals is a porn flick. Hollywood produces 400 feature films a year. The porn industry churns out 11,000. One in four American adults surveyed in 2002 admitted to seeing and X-rated movie in the past year” (Factoid box in Pamala Paul’s, “The Porn factor,” in Time Magazine, Jan. 19, 2004, citing sources such as Google, Nielsen/Net Ratings and the National Opinion Research Center).

* The Center for Disease Control reports that in the USA, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men has experienced an attempted or completed rape. 50% of rapes of females occur before the girl is 18 years of age. 22% of rapes of females occur before a little girl is 12 years old (CDC online). www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/fivp/saam.html

* “If Disney CEO Michael Eisner worked in a factory in the Dominican Republic sewing Disney garments at his current salary of $63,000 an hour, the cost to sew Disney kids’ clothing would jump from seven cents to $6,103 apiece” (Source: Sojourners, Nov/Dec 2003, p. 15. The National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights, 2003)