social justice quiz 2012: 13 questions

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/social-justice-quiz-2012-thirteen-questions-1328020073

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?

[rurallib]

1. Thank you, that was an eye opener.

[Doctor_J]

2. Dems should turn this into a sheet of debate points for the fall

and that includes the president.

[xchrom]

3. +1

[Doctor_J]

4. Here's one that will stump the freepers

and fox nation

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?

The answer is $836B, but won't mean that much to Fox viewers who cannot begin to fathom that this means that we could fund old-age pensions for more than a thousand years just using next year's military budget

Edit: Even if the answer were the smallest among these 3, it would still fund the old-age pensions for 500 years

[xchrom]

5. i caught that as well -- just reminds me -- we aren't broke. nt

[Igel]

6. Odd.

The SSA says it'll expend about $760 billion on benefits.

But "old age Social Security benefits" are less than 0.1% of that. And are apparently funded at about $15 dollars a year. (Since 45 million families get $620 million, at $10/year those families would cost $450 million and at $15/year that would be $600 million. Right?)

So the real question is, Why is Social Security so inefficient *and* still worthy of our support? Or, Why do we think families in their old age can survive on a smidgeon more than $15/year?

Or perhaps a better question is, Why do these numbers make so little sense?