Current Facts 29

Wal-Mart
When Bush cut taxes in 2004, the family that owns Wal-Mart increased their wealth by $91,500 per hour. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest private-sector employer, with 6,600 outlets in 15 countries. In 2005 it recorded sales of over $300 billion. In two-thirds of the 50 states it is the largest employer, over 1.8 million people work at Wal-Mart (1.5 million of whom are women). Shop-floor wages average $15,000 a year (and these “associates” are encouraged to complete work off the clock), that’s less than half of the $32,300 earned by the average non-supervisory worker on a 40-hour week. Stores actually put up posters to inform their workers how to apply for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits to the poor. So, state and federal taxpayers subsidize to the tune of $2,300 per Wal-Mart employee per year. One assessment states that for every two jobs created by Wal-Mart, three jobs are lost due to many smaller companies going out of business. Typically customers spend 20-25% less on groceries at Wal-Mart, but face reduced quality.
50 Facts That Should Change the USA, Stephen Fender, Disinformation, Sept 2008, p. 102-105.

Cluster Bomb Ban
93 countries signed a treaty to ban cluster bombs last week. But the world's top users (US, Russia, China, Israel, India & Pakistan) refused to sign. More than 90% of cluster bomb victims are said to be civilians, one-third of which are children. Cluster bombs contain small bomblets packed into larger shells, which scatter them over wide areas.
The Week Magazine, 12.19.08, v.8, i.392, p.8.

Loyalty Cards to RFID
Loyalty cards from places like supermarkets often provide customers with discounts while tracking and keeping a database of the purcheses you make and where. Some databases go back several years. The Wal-Mart chain (for example) admits they hold 460 terabytes of data on computers - that's more than twice the amount of information on the entire internet, or 23 times the information held in all the 128 million books in the US Library of Congress. loyaly cards assist businesses collect information of socio-demographics - from stages in your life, size of your household, your income and interests. Details in your shopping basket can determine if you prchased a new home, if you have a first child or teenagers...from toilet to lightbulbs the information can be very revealing. Suddenl customers may find themselves with rather specific offers. Collecting information is a hit-or-miss issue with most people. However, data has been used in court. One case for example a supermarke used receipts to defend a personal injury action - the plantiff claimed he fell on a spill, and the sore proposed to prove he was an alcoholic based on his purchases. In the wake of 9/11 one grocery chain voluntarily offered records to the FBI. Customers were never told this information was shared with the government. Federal agencies even created an algorithm that maps potential purchase trends similar of the terorists. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are a system that use a tiny transmitter chip, and can scan devices in a certain range. Initially acting like a barcode, it would help track goods from manufacturer to warehouse checkout, alert retailers if shelved in the wrong area or something stolen. Eventually in household appliances, a frozen chicken could tell an oven how to be cooked, a fridge could report of sour milk, and alert of food recalls. In theory, stores could "notice" you were expensive clothes and then raise its own prices, and could also potentially allow a persons movements and habits to be tracked all day. The potential for RFID abuse is equivelant to the benefits.
50 Facts That Should Change the World 2.0, Jessica Williams, Disinformation, Sept 2008, p. 36-39.

Facts in America
1. Throughout History, around one third of all immigrants to America have returned home.
2. 65 million Americans own handguns and use them to kill 35,000 other Americans every year.
3. At least once a week 42% of Americans eat out while on route somewhere else.
4. Only 18% of Americans adults hold a passport.
5. There is one car for every adult in the US.
6. Americans spend more on civil litigation than any other industrialized country, twice as much as they do on new automobiles.
7. More than 18,000 adults in America die each year because they don’t have health insurance.
8. Of the 239 elected mayors in the state of Oregon, only two receive annual salaries.
9. In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all media in the US. Today it is only 6 (Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, Viacom/CBS, & General Electric/NBC Universal).
10. With 4% of the world’s population, the US produces a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions, more than China, India & Japan combined.
11. 2.9 million Americans claim to have been abducted by aliens.
12. 65% of American adults are overweight (BMI 25-29.9), 30% are obese (BMI 30-39.9). By 2006, obesity killed 400,000 Americans annually, which is just short of 435,000 deaths of cigarette smokers.
13. More than 37 million, or 1 in 8 of the population live below the official poverty guidelines. As of January 2007, an individual needed at least $10,210, a couple $13,690, a couple with one child $17,170, and so on up to a family of eight at $34,570.
14. In 2006 16 million Americans had plastic surgery proceedures. 11 million were cosmetic (including nose, breast, liposuction, scar removal, laser hair removal and cellulite) proceedures. The number has doubled since 1997 (Botox popularity).
15. Black men born in the US today stand a 1 in 3 chance of going to jail.In June 2002 the US had 2 million people behind bars, surpassing Russia to have the world's largest prison population. In 2005 7 million Americans were on probation. 1 in every 37 Americans spent time in jail. 1 in every 15 American children born in 2001 will go to jail in their lifetime - of those, white males have a 1 in 17 chance, Hispanic males 1 in 6, and for black men 1 in 3. Today 1.4 million black men (13% of the black male population) cannot vote because of felony convictions.
16. Each week 54 children are expelled from schools for bringing a gun to class.
17. Americans discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Almost a third of waste produced is product packaging.
50 Facts That Should Change the USA, Stephen Fender, Disinformation, Oct 2008, p. 18, 42, 48, 54, 66, 72, 84, 96, 108-110, 132, 216, 234-235, 246-247. & 50 Facts That Should Change the World 2.0, Jessica Williams, Disinformation, Sept 2008, p. 61-62, 140-143, 185, 227-228.

World Facts
1. Of the 300 million obese people in the world, one-third (115 million) live in developing countries.
2. 94% of the worlds executions in 2005 took place in four countries, China, Iran, Saudia Arabia & USA.
3. Same-sex relationships are illegal in over 70 countries, pnealty is death in 9 of them. The single coomonality between countries is that the government themselves have taken to the perception that these are people who go against the norms of society.
4. For less than 1% of the income of the wealthiest countries each year, the wors effects of poverty could be greatly diminished (with enough to eat, basic health, education and other services). 1 in 5 of the world's people (about 800 million) live on less than $1 a day. 800 million people go hungry every day, 2 billion suffer chronic malnutrition, 18 million die each year from hunger related diseases. 2 billion people suffer from micro-nutrient deficiencies, and around half of the deaths of children under 5 (10 million a year) are associated with malnutrition.
5. Land mines kill or maim at least one person every hour.
6. Cars kill 2 people every minute.
7. One third of the world's population is at war.
8. Ten languages die out each year.
50 Facts That Should Change the World 2.0, Jessica Williams, Disinformation, Sept 2008, p. 11, 29, 46-47, 51, 66, 135, 145, 176.