Thought provoking statistics!

If the federal minimum wage had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968 it would currently be $21.72. (photo: AP)

27 Shocking Numbers That Reveal the True State of the Union

By Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone

29 January 14

cary statistics on unemployment, inequality, climate change and more

In tonight's State of the Union speech, we're likely to hear a lot about the nation's continuing recovery from the Great Recession, and about President Obama's determination to run an executive end-run around obstructionist Republicans in order to kick the economy into a higher gear.

But as the nation pauses for this annual moment of reflection on our fiscal and social health, too many leading indicators get short shrift. Here are 27 statistics – on unemployment, inequality, the drug war, defense spending, climate change and more – that underscore the troubled reality of America in 2014:

1. New income generated since 2009 that has gone to the top 1 percent: 95 percent


2. Financial wealth controlled by the bottom 60 percent of all Americans: 2.3 percent


3. Record combined wealth of the top 400 richest Americans: $2,000,000,000,000


4. Real decline in median middle-class incomes since 1999: $5,000


5. Percentage of Hispanic and African-American children living in poverty, respectively: 33.8 percent; 36.7 percent


6. Amount that food stamps will be cut in 2014: $5 billion


7. Federal minimum wage: $7.25


8. What the minimum wage would be if it had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968: $21.72


9. Number of U.S. workers laboring at or below minimum wage: 3.6 million – the near equivalent of the population of Los Angeles.


10. Stealth taxpayer subsidy to the fast-food industry, paid out as safety-net benefits to McWorkers earning poverty wages: $7 billion


11. Global carbon dioxide levels measured in parts per million: 397


12. Maximum concentration of the greenhouse gas that scientists deem sustainable: 350


13. Years since the turn of this century that have ranked among the warmest 15 on record: All 13


14. Rank of 2013 on that list of the warmest years on record: Number Four


15. U.S. defense spending as of 2012: $682 billion


16. Dollar amount by which that surpassed our nearest plausible military rival, China: $516 billion


17. Federal deficit last year: $680 billion


18. Number of Americans disenfranchised from voting for felony convictions: 5.9 million


19. Share of those disenfranchised voters who are African-American: 37 percent


20. Number of Americans arrested annually for marijuana possession: 658,000


21. Total incarcerated U.S. population: 2.3 million


22. Total population on probation/parole: 4.8 million


23. States that could be entirely filled by all of the Americans under correctional supervision: Nevada and Kentucky
24. Official unemployment rate: 6.7 percent


25. Alternate rate including Americans who've given up looking for work, or have only been able to secure part-time employment: 13.1 percent


26. Number of jobs the United States is still down from 2008 employment peak: 1.69 million


27. Number of Americans who were cut off from long-term unemployment benefits at the turn of the year: 1.3 million

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