Number of the 100 highest-paid American CEOs who earned more than their employers paid in taxes last year : 25
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
Respective rank of obesity, drug and alcohol problems, and low “aptitude” among the most common reasons for ineligibility : 1, 2, 3
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
Date on which Florida began requiring potential welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving benefits : 7/1/2011
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 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
Number of times the average British woman will : 1
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)
Figures cited are the latest available as of September 2011.
