Fun with Harper's Index

[SingingMongoose]

So, Harper's Magazine likes to publish a list of statistics they've dug up every month. Most are political, some are quirky, others curious.

I figured I'd pass along some of the bits I found most interesting from last month's issue. (The sources they give are in parenthesis.)

#5 - Number of the last four general elections in which the nominee who served in an overseas war lost to the one who didn't: 4 (Harper's research)
#6 - Number of these elections in which the loser was a decorated war hero: 3 (Harper's research)
#9 - Portion of Afghanistan now controlled by its government, according to the U.S. national-intelligence director: 3/10 (Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Washington))
#10 - Number of Iraqis who receive regular payments from the U.S. government in exchange for not fighting: 91,600 (Multi-National Force - Iraq (Baghdad))
#12 - Pages of ads that a company must buy each year in Good Housekeeping in order to win its seal of approval: 1 (Good Housekeeping (N.Y.C.))
#13 - Average number of $1 million stock gifts made each year by U.S. CEOs and chairmen to foundations they control: 60 (David Yermack, New York University (N.Y.C.))
#14 - Average percentage change in the company's stock price in the month after the gifts: -3 (David Yermack, New York University (N.Y.C.))
#21 - Percentage change since last year in the number of people receiving assistance from U.S. food banks: +20 (America's Second Harvest (Chicago))
#22 - Percentage change since then in the amount of food that the federal government has donated to the banks: -9 (U.S. Food and Nutrition Service (Alexandria, Va.))
#23 - Percentage change since Katrina in the number of New Orleans residents on food stamps and welfare, respectively: -51, -73 (Louisiana Department of Social Services (Baton Rouge))
#30 - Number of nations that do not legally guarantee women any paid maternity leave: 4 (Jody Heymann, McGill University (Montreal))
#31 - Average annual per-capita income in the three other than the United States: $1,226 (Harper's research)

#23 is interesting, because one wonders what kind of percentage change that is. Did the numbers decrease by 51% and 73%, or was that the change in proportion of New Orleans residents (regardless of the city's population)? Of course, either way, I have a hard time believing that deaths and people leaving the city accounted for all of that.

 

[midcan5]

One of the best magazines in our country.