Index Archive

Number of times the average British woman will

: 1

Percentage who have failed the test

: 2.5

Estimated amount this will save the state over the next year in denied benefits

: $98,000

Amount that Rick Perry has received in federal farm subsidies

: $72,687

Number of the top 50 donors to Rick Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns who received an appointment to a state post

: 22

Percentage increase in the sales of luxury goods within the United States in the past year

: 7.3

Number of “designer vagina” operations paid for by the British National Health Service last year

: 2,000

Percentage of women seeking the procedure who were deemed to have “normal” genitalia in a 2010 study

: 100

Minutes of television that the average British dog watches each day

: 50

Number of times the average British man will fall in love, according to an August study

: 3

Date on which Florida began requiring potential welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving benefits

: 7/1/2011

Percentage change in the gap between the wages of U.S. men and women since 1998

: +9

Amount by which a typical good-looking U.S. worker will out-earn a typical ugly one over a lifetime

: $230,000

Estimated amount that discrimination against the ugly costs America each year

: $20,000,000,000

Percentage of cell phone owners who admit they have pretended to be on the phone to avoid talking to someone in person

: 13

Percentage of female scientists who say they have fewer children than they wanted because of their careers

: 45

Percentage of male scientists who do

: 25

Date on which Joe Walsh (R., Ill.) said Washington can’t put “one more dollar of debt upon the backs of my kids”

: 7/13/2011

Amount that Walsh currently owes in back child support

: $98,422

Last year in which the U.S. government did not “do everything wrong,” according to Ron Paul

: 1987 (or possibly 1988)

Respective rank of obesity, drug and alcohol problems, and low “aptitude” among the most common reasons for ineligibility

: 1, 2, 3

Date on which the Lake Erie Correctional Institution became the first U.S. state prison sold to a private company

: 8/31/2011

Amount the Corrections Corporation of America paid the State of Ohio for the prison

: $72,700,000

Percentage of U.S. Postal Service expenses that go to labor costs

: 89

Of FedEx and UPS expenses, respectively

: 41, 48

Percentage of Americans who disapprove of a deficit-reduction plan with no tax increases

: 60

Amount of the 2009 stimulus package that the federal government has yet to spend

: $127,000,000,000

Estimated annual cost to the U.S. economy of worker “disengagement”

: $400,000,000,000

Estimated annual cost of rust and other corrosion to the Defense Department each year

: $23,000,000,000

Estimated percentage of Americans aged 17 to 24 who are ineligible to join the military

: 75

Number of the 100 highest-paid American CEOs who earned more than their employers paid in taxes last year

: 25

Date on which WikiLeaks announced “pre-litigation action” against the Guardian newspaper for leaking information

: 9/1/2011

Number of chopsticks made each day by Georgia Chopsticks in Americus, Georgia, for use in China

: 2,100,000

Percentage increase in the number of Chinese students applying to U.S. graduate schools this year

: 21

Portion of unemployed people in the United States who are covered by primary unemployment insurance

: 1/4

Percentage change since 2001 in applications for Social Security disability benefits

: +50

Number of Americans currently receiving them

: 13,600,000

Year by which the program will be unable to pay benefits, according to congressional estimates

: 2018

Chances that a U.S. corporation is considering ending health benefits when federal insurance exchanges begin

: 3 in 10

Percentage of all oxycodone sold to doctors in the U.S. last year that went to Florida

: 89

Harper’s Index

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