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Statistics for the People

by the Editorial Collective

Science for the People’ Vol. 2, No. 2, August 1970, p. 18

Did you know that:

…..the Sunday edition of the New York Times, which consists mostly of advertising, consumes 150 acres of forest every week.

…..the population of the United States is 6 per cent of the world population and that these 6 per cent use 60 per cent of the world’s resources.

…..the top ten advertisers spent $ 1.36 billion in 1968 forcing their questionable products on the common people of the United States. The companies and the amount they spent (in millions) are listed below:

Procter & Gamble…..270

General Motors…..214

General Foods…..154

Colgate-Palmolive…..122

Ford Motor Co……119

Sears Roebuck…..115

Bristol-Myers Co……114

American Home Products…..87

Warner-Lambert…..83.5

R.J.Reynolds…..81.8

…..About 7 per cent of America’s almost 10 million poor families could be fed for a year with this money, not to mention the great boon that would result if fewer cars, cigarettes and toothpaste varieties would be sold.

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