Hermes Index

(With apologies to Harpers Magazine)


1. Number of packs of unfiltered cigarettes one would have to smoke daily to simulate the air pollution in Beijing: 3

2. Percent of convenience stores in East Austin, TX that sell milk: 50

3. Percent of convenience stores in East Austin, TX that sell alcohol: 100

4. In 1990, the average number of years an American five-year-old was expected to attend school or college: 16.3

5. In 1996: 16.8

6.1990 U.S. ranking among the 29 richest countries in the world, regarding time spent in education: 1

7. 1996 U.S. ranking for the same: 12

8. 1996 high school graduation rate in the United States: 72

9. 1996 U.S. ranking regarding graduation rates (among 29 richest countries in the world): 28

10. Percent of surveyed Washington journalists who thought that the median U.S. income was $150,000 or more: 31

11. Number of files on GOP activists "improperly obtained" by the Clinton White House: 900

12. Percent of Americans who think that the Republican and Democratic parties do no reflect a fair range of views: 66

13. Number of years it took radio to accumulate an audience of fifty million: 38

14. Number of years it took television: 13

15. Number of years it took the Internet: 4

16. In a ten-year study, out of 1300 Hollywood films, the number of films directed by African-Americans: 58

17. Percent of above 1300 films with African-American crews: less than 3

18. Percent of total revenues generated by the Hollywood film industry that money spent by African-Americans creates: 25

19. In 1997, percent of people who walked or biked to work in Boston: 18

20. In San Francisco: 17

21. In Washington, DC: 16

22. In New York, as a whole: 14

23. In Manhattan, specifically: 25

24. Out of the hundred firms worldwide that produce and sell instruments of torture, the number based in the United States: 42



Sources: 1: Los Angeles Times; 2-3: Public Voice for Food and Health Policy; 4-9: New York Times; 11-12: The Progressive Review; 13-15: Commerce Department survey; 16-18: Black Filmmakers Coalition; 19-23: Urban Quality Indicators; 24: Project Censored: The Ten Most Unedr-Reported Stories of 1997