Just the facts, ma’am : statism in numbers
Average GDP per capita in most economically free countries : 23 325 $US
Average GDP per capita in most economically unfree countries : 3 829 $US
(w/purchasing power parity)
(Heritage Foundation, 2002 Index of Economical Freedom)
Average GDP per capita in most economically free states and provinces : 37 268 $US
Average GDP per capita in most economically unfree states and provinces : 21 056 $US
(Fraser Institute and NCPA, 2002 Economic Freedom of North America)
Average waiting times in Canadian hospitals, 1993 : 9.3 weeks
Average waiting times in Canadian hospitals, 2002 : 16.5 weeks
In comparaison, the average waiting time in the UK in 2002 was 9.4 weeks.
(Fraser Institute, annual “Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada” surveys
Health Insight, “Patient waiting targets and bed blocking”, January 2002)
Homicide rate in Israel, Switzerland and Austria : 1.2, 1.1, 1.5
(European countries with least restrictive gun laws)
Homicide rates in Luxembourg, Denmark, Germany : 2.1, 5.0, 1.8
(European countries with most restrictive gun laws)
Total homicide rate in United States : 7.3
Homicide rate in United States, excluding gun use : around 2.4 (one-third)
Total homicide rate in Canada : 2.0
(U.N. Demographic Yearbooks, U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice’s Vienna Session, Swiss national police)
Improvement in environmental quality indicators since 1980, in US : +18%
Improvement in environmental quality indicators since 1980, in Canada : +17%
Improvement in environmental quality indicators since 1980, in Mexico : 0%
(includes air pollution levels, water pollution levels, waste management, land management, and natural resources)
(Fraser Institute, Environmental Indicators 2002)
Change in unemployment when minimum wage increases by 10% : +2% to +6%
(Richard Burkhauser, Kenneth Couch et David Wittenberg, “Who Minimum Wage Increases Bite: An Analysis Using Monthly Data from the SIPP and CPS”, Southern Economic Journal, 2000).
Approximate number of annual deaths due to War on Drugs : 15 000
(6 000 due to drug impurities, 5 000 by homicides and 4 000 due to AIDS and the laws against the financing of syringe exchanges)
Approximate number of new drug prisoners every year : 200 000
Cost of all drug prisoners to society every year : 9 billion dollars
Cost of the War on Drugs every year : 39.2 billion dollars
(Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, DRCNet 07/00, Fraser Institute, Dr. Mary Ruwart, Milton Friedman, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Drucker, Dr. Ernest, (1998, Jan./Feb.). Public Health Reports,, “Drug Prohibition and Public Health.” U.S. Public Health Service. Vol. 114, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics)
Americans waiting for an organ donation, in 1988 : 16 000
Americans waiting for an organ donation, in 1995 : 75 000
Number of Americans who die on the waiting lists every year : approximately 5 000
Bloodiest tyrants in the 20th Century :
Mao Zedong – communist dictator – 40 million deaths
Adolph Hitler – fascist dictator – 34 million deaths
Josef Stalin – communist dictator – 20 million deaths