Lime's Polls: March 2016

Thursday, March 31, 2016

here's some random facts

Reports show that nearly 50% of Americans under 18 are minorities(that means they're not white)

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-racial-discrimination

According to the UN, 99.3% of women and girls in Egypt have been subjected to sexual harassment
Approximately 1.2 million children worldwide are victims of human trafficking, and over 80% are girls
1% of titled land in the world's owned by women
In 1770, the British Parliament proposed a bill that women using makeup should be punished for witchcraft

http://facts.randomhistory.com/feminism-facts.html

The crime rate in Vatican City's 133.6%, which means there's more annual offenses than there's people in the Vatican (about 500 people). Most of the crimes are committed by visiting tourists.
Brazil has more Catholics than Italy, France, and Poland combined
In 1910, 65% of Europe was Catholic. In 2010, only 24% was

http://facts.randomhistory.com/catholicism-facts.html

3-5% of criminal cases go to trial – the rest are plea bargained
The US Bureau of Justice Statistics concludes that the chance of a black male born in 2001 of going to jail's 32%. Latino males have a 17% chance and white males have a 6% chance.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/bill-quigley/14-shocking-facts-that-prove-us-criminal-justice-system-is-racist

White Americans held 88% of the country’s wealth in 2010, according to a Demos analysis of Federal Reserve data, they made up 64% of the population.
Black Americans held 2.7% of the country’s wealth, they made up 13% of the population

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/civil-rights-act-anniversary-racism-charts_n_5521104.html

Worldwide, 12% or 775 million adults—are considered functionally illiterate
Over 70% of America’s inmates can't read past a 4th grade level
Approximately 90% of high school dropouts are on welfare
About 2/3 of the world’s lowest literate adults are women.
Approximately 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read
Black students in the US are expelled at 3 times the rate of white students
Black students make up 16% of US school enrollment, but make up 32% of students who receive in-school suspensions, 42% of students who receive multiple out-of-school suspensions, and 34% of students who are expelled
More than 1/2 of the global low-literate population can be found in the regions of South and West Asia

http://facts.randomhistory.com/education-and-literacy-facts.html

In 2009, 59.8% of all firearm injury deaths were suicides, while 36.7% were homicides
An estimated 20,000 local, state, and federal gun laws currently regulate firearms in the US
Gun homicides with black victims are 151 per million. Gun homicides with white victims are 15 per million

http://facts.randomhistory.com/facts-about-shooting-deaths-and-gun-control.html

There's 25 countries in which 95% of the population's Muslim

http://facts.randomhistory.com/islam-facts.html

Researchers estimate that 80% of trafficking victims are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children
71% of trafficked children show suicidal tendencies

http://facts.randomhistory.com/human-trafficking-facts.html

According to the FBI, 70% of serial killers experienced problems related to substance abuse
England has produced 28% of Europe’s serial killers, Germany 27% and France 13%
Most serial killers in the US are Caucasian (84%); approximately 16% are African American
Women make up just a very small percentage of serial killers, they constitute the majority of victims: 65%
15% of serial murder cases, the victims are chosen entirely at random

http://facts.randomhistory.com/serial-killer-facts.html

Females commit approximately 20% of sex offenses against children

http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html

Approximately 20% of gun owners own 65% of the guns
In America, there are approximately 270 million firearms possessed by civilians, and only 897,000 carried by police

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-guns

In the US 6,222 hate crime incidents involving 7,254 offenses were reported in 2011

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-hate-crimes

Jews make up less than 1% of the population, yet experience discrimination in 85 countries — the third most of any religious group
Nearly 50% of countries increased their religious discrimination between 2009 and 2010, and only 32% saw decreases

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-religious-discrimination

Here's some facsts about the us economy

In 1928, the top 1% of families received 23.9% of all pretax income, while the bottom 90% received 50.7%. The Depression and World War II dramatically reshaped the nation’s income distribution: By 1944 the top 1%’s share was down to 11.3%, while the bottom 90% were receiving 67.5%

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/

Federal spending on more than 80 low-income assistance programs reached $746 billion in 2011 and state spending on those programs brought the total to $1.03 trillion

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shahgilani/2013/09/27/income-inequality-is-whats-destroying-america/#b2f36956ac95

University of California at Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez estimates that between 2009 and 2012, the top 1% captured 95% of total income growth
The states in which all income growth between 2009 and 2012 accrued to the top 1% include Delaware, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, Connecticut, Washington, Louisiana, California, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, Rhode Island, and Nevada.
Data for individual states show that rising inequality's a pervasive trend: Between 2009 and 2012, in 39 states the top 1% captured between half and all income growth.

http://www.epi.org/publication/income-inequality-by-state-1917-to-2012/

CEOs in 1965 made 24 times more than the average production worker, whereas in 2009 they made 185 times more.
There's 750,000 Americans who are homeless on any given night, with 1 in 5 of them considered chronically homeless
Only college graduates have experienced growth in median weekly earnings since 1979 (in real terms). High school dropouts have, by contrast, seen their real median weekly earnings decline by about 22%
Throughout much of the 20th century, the average woman earned about 60% of what the average man earned. Starting in the late 1970s, there was a substantial increase in women’s relative earnings, with women coming to earn about 80% of what men earned
In the US, 21% of all children are in poverty
In 2007, 8.1 million children under 18 years old were without health insurance
About 10% of full-time workers are in low-wage jobs, about 30% don't have health insurance, and about 40% don't have pensions
The top 10% of households controlled 68.2% of the total wealth in 1983 and 73.1% of the total wealth in 2007
The percentage of all wage and salary workers who are union members has declined from 24% in 1973 to 12.4% in 2008
Employment fell by 3.1 million jobs during 2008, and by another 4.7 million jobs in 2009. The job losses in the 2007-09 recession are more severe than in all prior recessions
37% of those who are both young black males and high school dropouts are now in prison or jail, a rate that's more than 3 times higher than what prevailed in 1980

http://inequality.stanford.edu/publications/20-facts-about-us-inequality-everyone-should-know

The US has an intergenerational earnings elasticity of about 0.5, which means that about 50% of a father’s earnings advantage or disadvantage will be passed on to the son
http://ourworldindata.org/data/growth-and-distribution-of-prosperity/income-inequality/
The average income of the richest 10% of the population's about 9 times that of the poorest 10% acrosss the OECD
But on average, in OECD countries, women earn 16% less than men, and female top-earners are paid 21% less than their male counterparts
http://www.oecd.org/social/inequality.htm
In 81% of American counties, the median income, about $52,000, is less than it was 15 years ago. This is despite the fact that the economy has grown 83% in the past quarter-century and corporate profits have doubled. American workers produce twice the amount of goods and services as 25 years ago, but get less of the pie.
The wealthiest 85 people on the planet have more money that the poorest 3.5 billion people combined
The poorest half of the US owns 2.5% of the country’s wealth
The super rich 0.01% of America, such as Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, take home a whopping 6% of the national income, earning around $23 million a year
The top 1% of America owns 50% of investment assets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds). The poorest half of America owns just 0.5% of the investments.
Since 1990, CEO compensation has increased by 300%. Corporate profits have doubled. The average worker's salary has increased 4%
In 1980 CEOs earned 42 times as much asthe average worker
The median wealth of people under 35 has dropped 68% since 1984. The median wealth of older Americans has increased 42%
The average white American’s median wealth is 20 times higher ($113,000) than the average African American ($5,600) and 18 times the Hispanic American ($6,300)
Since 1979, high school dropouts have seen median weekly income drop by 22%
Union membership in the US is at an all-time low, about 11% of the workforce. In 1978, 40% of blue-collar workers were unionized
400 Americans have more wealth, $2 trillion, than half of all Americans combined. That's approximately the GDP of Russia
In 1946, a child born into poverty had about a 50% chance of scaling the income ladder into the middle class. In 1980, the chances were 40%. A child born today has about a 33% chance
25 of the largest corporations in America in 2010 paid their CEOs more money than they paid in taxes that year
In 1962, the 1% household median wealth was 125 times the average median wealth. In 2010 the divide was 288 times
During the Great Recession, the average wealth of the 1% dropped about 16%. Meanwhile the wealth of the 99% dropped 47%
Between 1979 and 2007, the wages of the top 1% rose 10 times more than the bottom 90%
http://www.alternet.org/economy/35-mind-blowing-facts-about-inequality
Currently, over 40 million Americans hold student debt and about 7 million of those have defaulted on these student debts. Translation: 7 million (or about 2% of the population of the US) have had their credit trashed as a result of their student loans and can have 25% in penalties added onto their total student loan debts. About 60% of employers run credit checks on applicants before hiring or promoting
Since 1999, student debt has increased more than 500%. Since 2000, the average salary for young people has decreased by 10%
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kyle-mccarthy/10-fun-facts-about-student-loan-debt_b_4639044.html
43% of all American families spend more than they earn each year
46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month
There's more than 600 million active credit cards in the US
For households that have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt's $15,799.
1 of every 7 Americans has at least 10 credit cards
45% of all new car loans being made today are for more than 6 years
Approximately 70% of all car purchases in the US involve an auto loan.
45% of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers
Total home mortgage debt in the US is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago
Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, approximately 8 million Americans are at least 1 month behind on their mortgage payments
Historically, the percentage of residential mortgages in foreclosure in the US has tended to hover between 1 and 1.5%. Today, it's up around 4.5%
In America today, approximately 2-3rds of all college students graduate with student loan debt

http://www.infowars.com/debt-slavery-30-facts-about-debt-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind/

In 2012, Afghanistan remained the top recipient of US economic and military assistance for the 5th year in a row. Prior to that, Iraq held the top spot from 2003-2007
Almost half of US foreign assistance goes to 6 countries that are Washington’s allies in the campaigns against terror and drug trafficking
http://borgenproject.org/10-facts-foreign-aid-united-states/
US foreign assistance is 1% of the US federal budget.
http://www.politico.com/story/2011/02/the-facts-on-foreign-aid-049180
The IRS collects over $950 billion in taxes
7,000 millionaires didn’t pay any income tax in 2011
California has the most millionaires. More than 40,000 Californians reported over $1 million in income. Vermont has the least: less than 300 millionaires
More than half of returns–about 57%–are done by paid preparers

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/03/24/13-surprising-facts-about-your-taxes/#33f3b96c78af

The US tax code's now 3.8 million words long. If you took all of William Shakespeare’s works and collected them together, the entire collection would be about 900,000 words long
According to the National Taxpayers Union, US taxpayers spend more than 7.6 billion hours complying with federal tax requirements
75 years ago, the instructions for Form 1040 were 2 pages long. Today, they're 189 pages long.
There have been 4,428 changes to the tax code over the last decade
The IRS spends $2.45 for every $100 that it collects in taxes
The US is the only nation on the planet that tries to tax citizens on what they earn in foreign countries.
According to Forbes, the 400 highest earning Americans pay an average federal income tax rate of 18%
Warren Buffett had an effective tax rate of just 17.4% for 2010
The top 20% of all income earners in the US pay approximately 86% of all federal income taxes
The US has the highest corporate tax rate in the world (35%)
The city of Zug, Switzerland has a population of 26,000 people but it's the headquarters for 30,000 companies.
In 1950, corporate taxes accounted for about 30% of all federal revenue. In 2012, corporate taxes will account for less than 7% of all federal revenue
According to the IMF, a total of 18 trillion dollars is currently being hidden in offshore banks

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/24-outrageous-facts-about-taxes-in-the-united-states-that-will-blow-your-mind

143 million tax returns were filed with the IRS in 2010 and 85 million of those actually paid taxes

http://taxfoundation.org/article/tax-facts-journalists-and-taxpayers

6% of businesses file under the corporate tax code and they account for less than half of all business income, according to CRS.
By contrast, in 1980, 17% of businesses paid the corporate tax and generated nearly 80% of business income.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/14/news/economy/corporate-taxes-inversion/

Tax avoidance through offshore tax loopholes is a significant reason why corporations, which paid 1-3rd of federal revenues 60 years ago, now pay 1-10th of federal revenues.
26 profitable Fortune 500 firms paid no federal income taxes from 2008-2012. 111 large, profitable corporations paid 0 federal income taxes in at least 1 of those 5 years

http://www.americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-fairness-briefing-booklet/fact-sheet-offshore-corporate-tax-loopholes/

Comparing the candidates' tax plans

TED CRUZ
Turn 7 bracket tax system into a 10% flat tax and which expected to do the following:

Boost GDP by 13.9% above what is currently projected
Increase wages by 12.2%
Create 4,861,000 additional jobs.
https://www.tedcruz.org/issues/jobs-and-opportunity/

A family of 4 will pay no taxes on their first $36,000 of income
The plan exempts a large amount of initial income for low- and middle-income taxpayers, with a $10,000 standard deduction and $4,000 personal exemption

Enables Americans to save up to $25,000 annually tax-deferred in the Universal Savings Accounts (USA)

Capital investment would rise by 43.9%

The following taxes would be eliminated in the Cruz Simple Flat Tax:
    Death Tax.
    Overseas profits tax.
    The Alternative Minimum Tax.
    The Obamacare taxes.
https://www.tedcruz.org/tax_plan_summary/

JOHN KASICH
Work with Congress to pass a resolution amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget and submit it to the states for ratification. If Congress refuses, he'll work with the states to call a constitutional convention to craft an amendment that could be submitted to the states for ratification

1 year moratorium on all major, new regulations will give businesses a respite from the costs of Obama Administration regulations and allow time to overhaul the regulatory process

Call on Congress to make cost-benefit analyses mandatory for all new regulations to make sure their benefit outweighs their costs

John Kasich will approve the Keystone XL pipeline
https://www.johnkasich.com/resultsnow/

Eliminate federal estate(death) tax

Reduce the number of income tax brackets from 7 to 3 and reduce the top rate from 39.6% to 28%(which is the same rate it was when Ronald Reagon was President)
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/15/politics/john-kasich-budget-plan/

Balnce budget by 2025

Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit by 10%

Double the R&E tax credit for small businesses

Kasich's tax reform plan intends to raise $1 trillion of revenue through 2025
http://crfb.org/blogs/kasich-releases-plan-get-balance

Reduce capital gains and dividends tax from 23.8% to 15%

Lower corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%
https://www.atr.org/atr-analysis-john-kasich-tax-plan

DONALD TRUMP
The Trump plan phases out the tax exemption on life insurance interest for high-income earners

A one-time deemed repatriation of corporate cash held overseas at a significantly discounted 10% tax rate

Eliminate the death tax

The Trump plan eliminates the income tax for over 73 million households. 42 million households that currently file complex forms to determine they don’t owe any income taxes will now file a 1 page which will save them an average of $110 in preparation costs

Over 31 million households get the same simplification and keep on average nearly $1,000

This plan simplifies the tax code by taking nearly 50% of current filers off the income tax rolls entirely and reducing the number of tax brackets from 7 to 4 for everyone else

The following will pay 0% income taxes and 0% Long Term Cap Gains/ Dividends:
-Single filers earning $0-25,000
-Married filers earning $0-50,000
-Heads of Household earning $0-37,500

The following will pay 10% income taxes and 0% Long Term Cap Gains/ Dividends:
-Single filers earning $25,001-50,000
-Married filers earning $50,000-100,000
-Heads of Household earning $37,501-75,000

The following will pay 20% income taxes and 15% Long Term Cap Gains/ -Dividends:
-Single filers earning $50,001-150,000
-Married filers earning $100,001-300,000
-Heads of Household earning $75,001-225,00

The following will pay 25% income taxes and 20% Long Term Cap Gains/ -Dividends:
-Single filers earning $150,001+
-Married filers earning $300,001+
-Heads of Household earning $225,001+
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/tax-reform

The tax foundation's analysis finds that the plan would reduce federal revenues by $11.98 trillion over the next decade

Increase GDP by 11%

Eliminates the Net Investment Income Tax of 3.8%

The plan would lead to 6.5% higher wages and a 29% larger capital stock

The changes to the corporate income tax will reduce revenues by an additional $1.54 trillion over the next decade

However, if we account for the economic growth that the plan would produce, the plan would end up lowering revenue by $10.14 trillion over the next decade

Donald Trump’s tax plan would increase the after-tax income across all taxpayers by 10.2%

The top 1% of all taxpayers would see a 21.6% increase in after-tax income
http://taxfoundation.org/article/details-and-analysis-donald-trump-s-tax-plan

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Here's some immigration facts

The Department of Homeland Security and other researchers have estimated that 8 in 10 illegal immigrants are from Mexico and Latin America, so the increase in immigrants from these countries is an indication that illegal immigration has begun growing again
Immigrants are 13.3% of the nation's total population — the largest share in 105 years.
A new analysis of monthly Census Bureau data by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that the nation's immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit a record high of 42.1 million in the 2nd quarter of this year — an increase of 1.7 million since the same quarter of 2014. Growth in the immigrant population in the last year was led by a 740,000 increase in the number of Mexican immigrants

http://cis.org/Immigrant-Population-Hits-Record-Second-Quarter-2015

In 2013 California was home to about 2.67 million undocumented immigrants. Almost a quarter of the nation’s undocumented immigrants reside in California, where they make up slightly more than 6% of the state’s population
Estimates for California suggest 68% of the state’s undocumented population's Mexican-born
Estimates suggest that 13% of California’s K–12 school children have an undocumented immigrant parent
More undocumented residents (nearly 815,000) live in Los Angeles County than in any other area of the state, followed by Orange County (nearly 250,000), Santa Clara County (more than 180,000), and San Diego County (more than 170,000)
California’s labor force includes about 1.85 million undocumented immigrants—the second-highest statewide share of undocumented workers (9.4%) in the nation, after Nevada (10.2%)

http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_show.asp?i=818

Only 35% of immigrants who arrived in the US between 1985 and 1989 earned incomes above the “low-income” level in 1990. By 2008, 66% of these immigrants earned incomes above the “low-income” level.
Only 55.7% of immigrants who arrived in the US during the 1990s earned incomes above the “low-income” level in 2000. By 2030, 70.3% of these immigrants are likely to earn incomes above the “low-income” level.
In 2013, 18% of business owners in the US were foreign-born. Furthermore, 28% of “Main Street” business owners—those who bring businesses like grocery stores, restaurants, and clothing stores to neighborhoods—were foreign-born.
Immigrants continue to be nearly twice as likely as the native-born to become entrepreneurs, with the rate of new entrepreneurs being 0.52% for immigrants, compared to 0.27% for the native-born.

http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/special-reports/addressing-common-questions-on-immigration

About 28% of that total was immigrants here illegally, according to the Pew report

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/immigrant-population-shows-signs-of-growth-estimates-show.html?_r=0

Illegal immigrants represented 16.8% of drug trafficking cases, 20% of kidnapping/hostage taking, 74.1% of drug possession, 12.3% of money laundering and 12% of murder convictions

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/07/illegal-immigrants-accounted-for-nearly-37-percent-of-federal-sentences-in-fy-2014/

Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the US labor force. In the US labor force, there was 8.1 million unauthorized immigrants either working or looking for work in 2012. Among the states, Nevada (10%), California (9%), Texas (9%) and New Jersey (8%) had the highest shares of unauthorized immigrants in their labor forces.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/19/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

These states make up most of where illegal immigrants are living: California 25%, Texas 16%, All the other states are in single digits
In 2000 there were 1.09 million illegal immigrants living in Texas, in 2012 it was 1.83 million illegal immigrants living in Texas which is an increase of nearly 68% in the number of illegal immigrants living in Texas
40% of Brickmasons, blockmasons, and stonemasons are illegal immigrants
37% of Drywall installers, ceiling tile installers and tapers are illegal immigrants

http://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000845

Monday, March 14, 2016

Washington BC has lowest rate of gun ownership, but highest gun murder rate

District of Columbia
Gun ownership rate                           3.6%
Gun murders per 100,000              16.5%

Vermont
Gun ownership rate                           42%
Gun murders per 100,000                0.3%

Iowa
Gun ownership rate                           42.9%
Gun murders per 100,000                0.7%

South Dakota
Gun ownership rate                           56.6%
Gun murders per 100,000                1%

Wisconsin
Gun ownership rate                           44.4%
Gun murders per 100,000                1.7%

Wyoming
Gun ownership rate                           59.7%
Gun murders per 100,000                0.9%

Oregon
Gun ownership rate                           39.8%
Gun murders per 100,000                0.9%

North Dakota
Gun ownership rate                           50.7%
Gun murders per 100,000                0.6%

Utah
Gun ownership rate                           43.9%
Gun murders per 100,000                0.8%

http://demographicdata.org/facts-and-figures/gun-ownership-statistics/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state

US has a $649.6 billion trade deficit with these countries

China
US export: $123.7 billion
US import: $466.8 billion
Trade deficit: -$343.1 billion

Germany
US exports: $49.4 billion
US imports: $123.3 billion
Trade deficit: -$73.9 billion

Mexico
US export: $240.2 billion
US import: $294.1 billion
Trade deficit: -$53.9 billion

Canada
US exports: $312.4 billion
US imports: $347.8 billion
Trade deficit: -$35.4 billion

Saudi Arabia
US exports: $18.7 billion
US imports: $47 billion
Trade deficit: -$28.3 billion
Italy
US exports: $17 billion
US imports: $42.1 billion
Trade deficit: -$25.1 billion

India
US exports: $21.6 billion
US imports: $45.2 billion
Trade deficit: -$23.6 billion

France
US exports: $31.3 billion
US imports: $46.9 billion
Trade deficit: -$15.6 billion

Russia
US exports: $10.8 billion
US imports: $23.7 billion
Trade deficit: -$12.9 billion

Iraq
US exports: $2.1 billion
US imports: $13.8 billion
Trade deficit: -$11.7 billion

Indonesia
US exports: $8.3 billion
US imports: $19.4 billion
Trade deficit: -$11.1 billion

Switzerland
US exports: $22.2 billion
US imports: $31.2 billion
Trade deficit: -$9 billion

Sweden
US exports: $4.3 billion
US imports: $10.3 billion
Trade deficit: -$6 billion

https://www.census.gov/popclock/world