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January 12, 2015<br>
<b><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/12/how-much-do-you-know-about-inequality/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/12/how-much-do-you-know-about-inequality/</a></small></b><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle"><b><big><big>Social Justice Quiz
2015</big></big></b></div>
<h1 class="article-title">How Much Do You Know About Inequality?</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by BILL QUIGLEY</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>Question One. In 1990, twenty percent of all children in the
US lived in poverty. What percent of the children in the US
live in poverty today?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Ten percent</p>
<p>B: Fifteen percent</p>
<p>C: Twenty percent</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Two. The median wealth of black households in the US
is $11,000. What is the median wealth of white households?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: $22,000</p>
<p>B: $62,000</p>
<p>C: $141,000</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Three. In 1960 the median earnings of women who work
full-time year-round were about 60 percent of men’s. In 2010,
women’s median earnings were about 77 percent of men’s. At
this rate, in what year will women’s median earnings equal
men’s?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: 2028</p>
<p>B: 2038</p>
<p>C: 2058</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Four. The average Chief Executive Officer was paid
20 times as much as the average worker in 1965, 30 times as
much in 1978, and 122 times as much in 1995. How much more
were CEOs paid than workers in 2013?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: 195 times as much.</p>
<p>B: 245 times as much.</p>
<p>C: 295 times as much.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Five. The six Walton heirs to the Walmart fortune
are worth roughly $140 billion. The net financial worth of
these six people equals the same as how many US families?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Five million.</p>
<p>B. Twenty Five million.</p>
<p>C. Fifty Two million.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Six. The US is number one in the world in military
spending. How much more does the US spend than other
countries?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: More than China and Russia combined.</p>
<p>B. More than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and France
combined.</p>
<p>C. More than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, United
Kingdom, German, Japan and India combined.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Seven. How many people in the world suffer from
chronic hunger?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Forty million.</p>
<p>B. Four hundred million.</p>
<p>C. Eight hundred forty million.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Eight. How many people in the world have no access
to electricity?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Eight hundred forty million.</p>
<p>B: One billion.</p>
<p>C. One billion five hundred million.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Nine. How much does the US spend on foreign aid each
year?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: One billion dollars.</p>
<p>B: Ten billion dollars.</p>
<p>C. Forty six billion dollars.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Ten. How much do people in the US spend on their
pets each year?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A. One billion dollars.</p>
<p>B. Forty billion dollars.</p>
<p>C. Sixty billion dollars.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Eleven. The federal government keeps statistics on
young men, ages 15 to 19, killed by the police. How many times
more likely is a young black man to be killed by police than a
young white man?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Three times.</p>
<p>B: Ten times.</p>
<p>C: Twenty-one times.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Twelve. There are over 60,000 immigration court
cases of unaccompanied children who arrived at the US border.
In how many of those cases do the children have a lawyer?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Ninety-five percent.</p>
<p>B: Fifty percent.</p>
<p>C. Thirty two percent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Thirteen. There are 34 countries in the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development. Where does the US
rank in the percentage of children in poverty?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: The US ranks 1<sup>st</sup> and has the least percentage
of children in poverty.</p>
<p>B: The US ranks 6<sup>th</sup> and has the sixth least
percentage of children in poverty.</p>
<p>C. The US ranks 28<sup>th</sup> and is sixth from the
bottom in child poverty.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Fourteen. How many people stay in homeless shelters
each night?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: 250,000</p>
<p>B: 400,000</p>
<p>C: 570,000</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Question Fifteen. The US Department of Housing and Urban
Development issues a national survey every year listing fair
market rents for every county in the US. HUD also suggests
renters should pay no more than 30 percent of their income on
housing costs. In how many of the USA’s 50 states can someone
who works full-time and earns the federal minimum wage pay 30%
of their income and find a two-bedroom apartment at the fair
market rental amount?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A: Five</p>
<p>B. Two</p>
<p>C. Zero</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>Answers:</p>
<p>One. Twenty percent of children in the US live below the
official poverty line in the latest <a
href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p60-249.pdf%20"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.census.gov']);">Census
Report</a>. In 1990, twenty percent of children lived below
the poverty line as well.</p>
<p>Two. Median wealth for white households in the US is
$141,000. <a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/12/how-much-do-you-know-about-inequality/%20http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/%20%C2%A0">Pew
Research</a>.</p>
<p>Three. Women’s median earnings will equal men’s in 2058.</p>
<p>Four. The average CEO of a S&P 500 company receives 295
times as much compensation as the average worker. <a
href="http://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-continues-to-rise/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.epi.org']);">Economic
Policy Institute Report 2014</a>.</p>
<p>Five. The six Walton heirs own the same amount of wealth as
52.5 million US families. <a
href="http://www.epi.org/blog/walton-family-net-worth-case-study-growing/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.epi.org']);">EPI.</a></p>
<p>Six. The US spends more on defense than China, Russia, Saudi
Arabia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and India
combined. <a
href="http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0053_defense-comparison"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://pgpf.org']);">Peter
G. Peterson Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>Seven. The United Nations reports that 842 million people
suffer from chronic hunger. <a
href="http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf']);">UN
Development Report 2014</a>.</p>
<p>Eight. There are 1.5 billion people in the world who do not
have access to electricity and another billion have access to
unreliable electricity networks. <a
href="http://www.unfoundation.org/what-we-do/issues/energy-and-climate/clean-energy-development.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.unfoundation.org']);">United
Nations Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>Nine. The US budget for foreign assistance in 2015 is $46.2
billion, much of that is for foreign military assistance. This
is about one percent of the US budget. <a
href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/pl/222843.htm"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.state.gov']);">State
Department</a>.</p>
<p>Ten. The U<a
href="http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-2/spending-on-pets.htm"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.bls.gov']);">S
Department of Labor </a>reports people in the US spent
approximately $61.4 billion on their pets annually.</p>
<p>Eleven. Twenty one times. <a
href="http://www.propublica.org/article/deadly-force-in-black-and-white"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.propublica.org']);">Pro
Publica</a>.</p>
<p>Twelve. Thirty two percent. Children in immigration cases,
just like adults in immigration cases, are not entitled to an
attorney. <a
href="http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/371/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://trac.syr.edu']);">Syracuse
University Report</a>.</p>
<p>Thirteen. The US ranks 28<sup>th</sup>, 6<sup>th</sup> from
the bottom of the 34 countries in the <a
href="http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/CO2_2_ChildPoverty_Jan2014.pdf"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','download','http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/CO2_2_ChildPoverty_Jan2014.pdf']);">OECD</a>
in child poverty.</p>
<p>Fourteen. Over 570,000 people stay in homeless shelters each
night according to a recent <a
href="http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2014/HUDNo_14-135"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://portal.hud.gov']);">federal
government survey</a>.</p>
<p>Fifteen. In not one of the 50 states can a full-time minimum
wage worker afford a two bedroom apartment at 30% of their
pay. In fact, a full time minimum wage worker cannot afford
even a one bedroom apartment except in a few counties in
Washington and Oregon where the minimum wage is higher. <a
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/03/24/minimum-wage-rent-affordable-housing/6817639/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.usatoday.com']);">USA
Today</a>.</p>
<p><em><strong>Bill Quigley</strong> teaches law at Loyola
University New Orleans and can be reached at <a
href="mailto:quigley77@gmail.com">quigley77@gmail.com</a></em></p>
</div>
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