Fun Facts, December Edition

The share of wealth held by the Forbes 400 more than doubled from $1.27 trillion in 2009 to nearly $3 trillion this year (2019).

The amount of taxable income for the wealthiest group of US citizens dropped from 27% in 2009 to around 23% this year, the first time they were effectively taxed lower than the nation’s working class.

https://www.businessinsider.com/forbes-400-wealth-doubled-last-decade-as-tax-rate-fell-2019-11?utm_source=reddit.com

Top 1%: Wages up 158% since 1979
https://ritholtz.com/2019/12/top1-wages-up-158/

Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change

Five Companies own 80% of all stock in S&P 500 listed companies
https://www.reddit.com/r/ABoringDystopia/comments/cko4jx/5_companies_own_80_of_all_stock_in_sp_500_listed/

The Big Five tech firms have acquired more than 600 startups in the last two decades. Google alone has acquired one company per month, on average, for the past 17 years. This amounts to a disproportionate share of all startups acquisitions in the US.
https://promarket.org/the-cost-of-america-oligopoly-problem/

The rate at which children are being admitted to U.S. emergency rooms for sexual abuse almost doubled between 2010 and 2016, new study finds. Researchers believe the rise could be related to increases in human trafficking.
https://www.physiciansweekly.com/increasing-emergency-department-admissions/

There are now 2,101 billionaires globally – up almost 40% from five years ago
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/08/ubs-there-are-now-2101-billionaires-globally-up-40percent-in-5-years.html

Dennis Ritchie; who invented the C programming language, co-created the Unix operating system, and is largely regarded as influencing a part of effectively every software system we use on a daily basis; died 1 week after Steve Jobs. Due to this, his death was largely overshadowed and ignored.

Ritchie and Kernighan (and the rest of the Bell Labs guys) are almost unknown to the public, despite creating the basis for modern programming and developing the foundations for all the software we use today.
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/a31ce0/til_dennis_ritchie_who_invented_the_c_programming/

Note that many of the people who *actually invented* the things that made the IT revolution possible are unknown to the general public. A lot of them worked in government labs, too. Instead, we’re treated to constant invocations of “Billgatestevejobs” (or, more recently, “Jeffbezoselonmusk”) by the media and politicians.

The guy who discovered insulin wanted it to be cheaply available to everyone, so he sold the patent to a university for only $1. They sold that patent to a pharmaceutical company that now manufactures it for $3 and sells it for $370 (A 12,000% markup). But only in America, where loopholes in patent law have allowed them to keep the patent alive long after it should have expired.
https://www.treehugger.com/health/inventors-insulin-sold-their-patent-buck-why-it-so-expensive.html
Too bad Americans only vote on guns and fetuses.

The wealth of the richest 1% of Americans is close to surpassing the wealth of middle class.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-09/one-percenters-close-to-surpassing-wealth-of-u-s-middle-class

Technically, this means there is no middle class anymore. News flash.

A 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that in the ten most populous states, an estimated 2.4 million people lose a combined $8 billion in income every year to theft by their employers. That’s nearly half as much as all other property theft combined last year—$16.4 billion according to the FBI.
https://www.gq.com/story/wage-theft

Over the course of the year, Americans collectively spent 70 billion hours behind the wheel—an eight percent increase since 2014.
https://newsroom.aaa.com/2019/02/think-youre-in-your-car-more-youre-right-americans-spend-70-billion-hours-behind-the-wheel/

In 1960, the median gross rent was $71, or $588 in today’s dollars. The current median US rent is $1,700.
https://www.businessinsider.com/more-millennials-planning-to-rent-forever-cant-afford-housing-2019-11

Fake guns are banned in the downtown Las Vegas district, but real guns are OK.
https://vegaschanges.com/2019/11/20/fake-guns-banned-in-downtown-las-vegas-district-but-real-guns-are-ok/

With his Thanksgiving vacation, President Donald Trump’s golf hobby has now cost Americans an estimated $115 million in travel and security expenses ― the equivalent of 287 years of the presidential salary he frequently boasts about not taking.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-golf-trips-millions-thanksgiving_n_5ddedbefe4b0913e6f7865cf

The blood of poor Americans is now a leading export, bigger than corn or soy
https://boingboing.net/2019/12/09/leeched.html

Puerto Rico Has Lost 4% Of Its Population
https://www.cracked.com/article_26717_5-huge-news-stories-media-straight-up-forgot-about.html

Americans take fish antibiotics because it’s cheaper than a visit to the doctor.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/11/fish-antibiotics-human-use-cheaper-than-doctor

One in every 200 people are homeless in England.
https://www.ft.com/content/092ab022-20de-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b

Nearly half of US residents to be ‘obese’ in 2030; 1 in 4 to have ‘severe obesity,’
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/19/nearly-half-u-s-residents-obese-2030-harvard-study-finds/2699318001/

Australia’s biggest forest fire has now destroyed an area seven times the size of Singapore.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-monster-a-short-history-of-australia-s-biggest-forest-fire-20191218-p53l4y.html

Sigurd the Mighty, a ninth-century Norse earl of Orkney, has the dubious distinction of being the only person to have been killed by an enemy he had already decapitated several hours earlier.
https://readicon.com/bizarre-viking-deaths-sigurd-the-mighty-killed-by-a-bite-from-a-severed-head/