Our Society

  • More than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day. The wealthiest one-fifth of the world's people control about 85 percent of the money, the poorest fifth about 1.4 percent.

  • Every day, over 2500 American children witness the divorce or separation of their parents.

  • Every day, 90 kids are taken from their parents' custody and committed to foster homes.

  • Every day, 13 Americans aged 15 to 24 commit suicide, and another 16 are murdered.

  • Since the first members of our generation were born (1961), America has experienced a 560 percent increase in violent crime, a 400 percent increase in births to unwed mothers, a tripling in teenage suicide, and a drop of almost 80 points in SAT scores. (Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, William Bennett)

  • Black teenagers are three times more likely to be killed by gun violence than by natural causes.(Children's Defense Fund Adolescent Fact Book)

  • During the last 30 years the number of children living in poverty has increased by nearly 30 percent - with the greatest increase among white kids. (Vanishing Dreams)

  • A monthly investment of $50 for 20 years will only provide for one year of tuition at a public college or university. (USA Today)

  • Each year, 24,000 Americans - on average, 65 each day - are killed with handguns, and we spend over $1 billion annually to treat firearm injuries. (Handgun Control, Inc)

  • The U.S. ranks 17th in the world in public spending on education (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)

  • Lacking the bare essentials of survival, millions of human beings have taken to the road, migrating hundreds, even thousands, of miles to urban slums, where all that awaits them are meager government relief packages.

  • Nearly fifteen million children die each year of malnutrition and starvation.

  • Hundreds of millions of people have no running water to drink or bathe in.

  • In the U.S. about a third of the population is overweight.

  • Amount the U.S. spends on weight-loss programs each year: $35 billion.

  • Amount needed to eliminate starvation and malnutrition in the world: $19.25 billion.

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