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Social Justice Quiz 2012: Thirteen Questions
Question One. The combined pay of the 299 highest paid CEOs in the US is enough to support how many median salary jobs?
45,000? 83,000? 102,325?
Two. The median net worth of black households in the US is $2,200. What is the median net worth of white households in the US?
$4,400? $44,000? $97,000?
Three. 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 3068 counties can someone who works full-time and earns the federal minimum wage pay 30% of their income and find a one-bedroom apartment at the fair market rental amount?
19? 368? 1974?
Four. How much must the typical U.S. worker earn per hour to rent a two-bedroom apartment if that worker dedicates thirty percent of his income, as HUD suggests, to rent and utilities?
$9.39? $14.63? $18.46?
Five. The wealthiest 1 percent of the US has a net worth which is how many times greater than the median or typical household’s net worth?
50? 150? 225?
Six. Which of these countries puts the highest percentage of their people in jails and prisons?
China? Iran? Iraq? Germany? Russia? USA?
Seven. In 2012, the US will pay out about $620 million for old age Social Security benefits to 45 million families. How much is budgeted for military spending by the US in 2012?
$310 billion? $620 billion? $836 billion?
Eight. The US is number one in the world in military spending. How much more does the US spend compared to the top 15 countries in the world in military spending?
More than any 2 other countries combined? More than any 5 other countries combined? More than all the rest of the 15 top military spending countries combined?
Nine. How many people in the world live on less than $1.25 a day?
150 million? 500 million? Over 1 billion?
Ten. How many people in the world live without electricity?
500 million? One billion? One and half billion?
Eleven. The US government donates over $30 billion a year in official development assistance (foreign aid) to poor countries. Where does that rank the US government in percentage of giving among the richest 23 countries?
First? Tenth? Nineteenth?
Twelve. The US government donates over $30 billion a year to poor countries. How much do US consumers spend on pets and pet supplies each year?
$10 billion? $30 billion? $67 billion?
Thirteen. The poverty rate among children in the US is over 20 percent. How does US compare with the rest of the 30 nations surveyed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development?
First? Tenth? Twenty-sixth?
Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2012:
One. The combined pay of the top 299 CEOs is enough to support 102,325 average jobs. Source: Corporate Paywatch.
Two. The median net worth of white households in the US is $97,900. Source: Economic Policy Institute.
Three. Except for eleven counties in Illinois and another eight in Puerto Rico, there is no county in the US where a one bedroom fair market rate apartment is available to a person working full-time at the minimum wage. Source: The National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Four. The typical worker must earn $18.46 an hour to rent a two bedroom apartment. Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Five. In the last numbers reported, the top 1 percent had net worth 225 times greater than the median or typical household’s net worth, the highest ever recorded. Source: Economic Policy Institute.
Six. The rate of incarceration per 100,000 people is: USA 730, Russian 534, Iran 334, China 122, Iraq 101, and Germany 86. Source: International Centre for Prison Studies, University of Essex.
Seven. $836 billion. Over $713 billion on military programs and another $123 for veterans affairs. Source: US Office of Management and Budget, Fiscal Year 2012.
Eight. The US spends $100 billion more on our military than the next highest 15 countries combined. More than China, UK, France, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Canada and Turkey combined. Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2011 Yearbook.
Nine. 1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 a day. Source: United National Development Program, Human Development Report 2010.
Ten. One and half billion people, more than one of every five people in the world, live without electricity. Source: United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2011.
Eleven. US government ranks 19th out of 23 countries in assistance to poor nations, giving about two-tenths of one percent of US gross national income to poor countries. Source: Global Issues: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance.
Twelve. US consumers spend $67 billion each year on pets, pet products and services. Source: US Census Bureau 2012 Statistical Abstract.
Thirteen. The US poverty rate among children ranks the US 26th among 30 nations in the rate of poverty among children. Source: Poverty among children. OECD.
Sam Schmitt, a law student at University of Montana School of Law, contributed to this piece.
He has been an advisor on the human and civil rights to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch USA, and a Chairman of the Louisiana Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civili Rights.
He was chosen as the recipient for the 2006 Camille Gravel Civil Pro Bono Award from the Federal Bar Association New Orleans Chapter, received the 2006 Stanford Law School National Public Service Award, and the 2006 National Lawyers Guild Ernie Goodman award. Bill also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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9 comments on "Social Justice Quiz 2012: Thirteen Questions"
June 06, 2012 6:39pm
The supreme court judges who voted on the side of Citizen's United should be tried for treason. Between that case and selecting our idiot president in 2000 they are a piece of work. And people aren't paying attn. They are too stupid to realize that democracy is being hijacked and politicians are being bought by a few billionaires. This isn't democracy this is aristocracy. But they will pander to the religious right about abortion and birth control or gay marriage and get them all in a lather. Hypocritical bigots that they are. The GOP can't focus on real issues because they haven't done anything for this country.
May 11, 2012 10:05pm
Really the GOP/TP expects that the 1% will consume as much as 99% would do? This is nonsense.
The enlarging gap may sparkle some civil unrest which will far more expensive than redesigning the tax system.
But even a redesigned tax system, will be useless if the bonuses and stock options are not regulated as should be the financial institutions when "gambling" money they don't have, through derivatives not commercially supported.
In some way, these independent "traders" are gambling against the currency value . This often goes AGAINST the government policy and may sparkle huge taxpayer money losses, while the profiteers export their profits into fiscal paradises.
Tax middle-class but not Mitt, is not a motto we should accept.
May 02, 2012 7:59pm
All through history parasites abound, now with deregulation and corporate personhood they now rule. The richest 1% are nothing but pure 100% parasites, they make nothing, create nothing, just steal from those that create.
April 15, 2012 5:43pm
Care to look at Obama's contribution list?
Government needs to get out of job creation, what a failure.
How much money per student do you think is needed for public education? $8,000, $12,000, $20,000?
May 08, 2012 5:49pm
POTUS has very little chance of changing the "status quo"...
Obama has attempted what many consider "small gains" i.e. health insurance/student loan assistance and that has been challenged and defeated by GOP...Status Quo!
April 18, 2012 3:41pm
...and how much would it cost if it was all private: 16,000, 24,000, 40,000? Just what minimum wage folks need.
February 28, 2012 10:30am
Detailed information like this is available from the Economic Policy Institute's website, State of Working America. The EPI just issued a book summarizing the last 30 years of America's so-called free-enterprise system. It's title? Failure by Design. It's a small book worth owning--a document that outlines how economic policy and politics has resulted in our current failure. It also makes the case that government spending to create jobs would be a positive, not regressive, step in creating new policies to benefit "the rest of us."
February 15, 2012 6:21pm
Social justice is an issue being swept under the table by Billionnaires financing GOP candidates by making "big" noises on isues that benefit them directly. Social balance and justice is the least of their concerns.
February 14, 2012 5:55pm
For God's sake - that's class warfare! How many time do you hear the Newt and the Mitt say that shit. I would love to see these questions asked on face the nation, or the other political tabloids that exploit politics for the sake of the super pac money they are banking on.
My f**knlil dog gets more money and more benefits than 1.5 billion people and my government spends my taxes on prisons, war and tax breaks for the filthy rich.
Great quiz. Why did no one else take the time to read it. Thanks Quigley.