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Social Justice Quiz 2008 - Twenty Questions

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14.  What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?

 

15.  How many veterans are homeless on any given night?

    

16.  The military budget of the United States in 2008 is the largest in the world at $623 billion per year.  How much larger is the US military budget than that of China, the second largest in the world?

 

17.  The US military budget is larger than how many of the countries of the rest of the world combined? 

 

18.  Over the 28 year history of the Berlin Wall, 287 people perished trying to cross it.  How many people have died in the last 4 years trying to cross the border between Arizona and Mexico?

 

19.  India is ranked second in the world in gun ownership with 4 guns per 100 people. China is third with 3 firearms per 100 people.  Which country is first and how many guns do they own?

 

20.  What country leads the world in the incarceration of its citizens?

  

 Answers to Social Justice Quiz 2008

 

1.   22,000. The U.S. State Department reported there were more than 22,000 deaths from terrorism last year.  Over half of those killed or injured were Muslims.  Source: Voice of America, May 2, 2008. “Terrorism Deaths Rose in 2007.”

 

2.  About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations.   Poverty.com – Hunger and World Poverty.  Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds.  Bread for the World.  Hunger Facts: International.

 

3.   Today’s average CEO from a Fortune 500 company makes 364 times an average worker’s pay and over 70 times the pay of a four-star Army general.  Executive Excess 2007, page 7, jointly published by Institute for Policy Studies and United for Fair Economy, August 29, 2007.  1965 numbers from State of Working America 2004-2005, Economic Policy Institute.

 

4.  In no city or county in the entire USA can a full-time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom rental.  The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) urges renters not to pay more than 30% of their income in rent.   HUD also reports the fair market rent for each of the counties and cities in the US.   Nationally, in order to rent a 2 bedroom apartment, one full-time worker in 2008 must earn $17.32 per hour.  In fact, 81% of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs.  Source:  Out of Reach 2007-2008, April 7, 2008, National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

 

5.   Calculated in real (inflation adjusted) dollars, the 1968 minimum wage would have been worth $9.83 in 2007 dollars.  Andrew Tobias, January 16, 2008.  The federal minimum wage is $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008 and $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009.

           

6.  True.  The USA spends $43.4 billion on pet food annually.  Source: American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, Inc.  The USA spent $23.5 billion in official foreign aid in 2006.  The government of the USA gave the most of any country in the world in actual dollars.  As a percentage of gross national income, the USA came in second to last among OECD donor countries and ranked number 20 at 0.18 percent behind Sweden at 1.02 percent and other countries such as Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and others.  This does not count private donations which, if included, may move the USA up as high as 6th.  The Index of Global Philanthropy 2008, page 15, 19. 

 

7.  The World Bank reported in August 2008 that 2.6 billion people consume less than $2 a day. 

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Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans and Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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