INDICATORS

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CBS BOSTON - In our exclusive Fast Track survey, 500 adults were asked,
"Do you think the U.S. should or should not reinstate a military draft?
76% do not want the draft reinstated while 20% said it should be. Fast
Track is conducted by Survey USA.

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SLATE REPORTS THAT the NY Post uses perv or pervert in headlines about
90 times a year, while the Daily News averages just 48 times a year.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

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LARRY COPELAND, USA TODAY - A coming surge in the number of older women
driving. A steep decline in the percentage of people who walk to work.
An embrace of carpooling by Hispanics. A sharp increase in the portion
of black households that own cars. These are key findings of the most
exhaustive study of Americans' driving habits in the past 10 years,
cited in a report released by the Transportation Research Board, an arm
of the National Research Council.

- The percentage of Americans who walk to work dropped from 5.6% in 1980
to 3.9% in 1990 and 2.9% in 2000.

- Hispanics carpool at a rate double that for non-Hispanics - 23% vs.
11%.

- The portion of workers who reach their jobs in less than 20 minutes
dropped to 47% in 2000 after hovering around 50% for decades

http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~
3/37681606/2006-10-15-us-commute_x.htm

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THINK PROGRESS - A new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted October
10-11 finds that nearly three in four Americans (73 percent) agree that
U.S. troops should start to come home.

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THE LOCAL, SWEDEN - Sweden leads the world when it comes to national tax
burdens, according to new figures from the OECD. For every kronor
earned, Swedes pay more than anyone else in tax, and the figure has
risen since 2004. . . In 2005 the total tax revenue as a percentage of
Sweden's GDP was 51.1 percent - up from 50.4 percent the year before.
The Scandinavian countries dominated the top five positions in the OECD
league table. Denmark was ranked second, with a 49.7 percent tax burden,
Norway fourth and Finland fifth. Belgium, where 45.4 percent of GDP is
accounted for by tax, came third. Almost 40 percent of Sweden's tax
revenue comes from income and company profits, while around 25 percent
is from social charges and about the same again from tax on goods and
services.

OECD rank

1. Sweden: 51.1%
2. Denmark: 49.7%
3. Belgium: 45.4%
4. Norway: 45.0%
5. Finland: 44.5%
6. France: 44.3%
7. Iceland: 42.4%
8. Austria: 41.9%
9. Italy: 41.0%
10. Czech Republic: 38.5%
11. Luxembourg: 37.6%
12. UK: 37.2%
13. Hungary: 37.1%
14. New Zealand: 36.6%
15. Spain: 35.8%
16. Germany: 34.7%
17. Canada: 33.5%
18. Turkey: 32.3%
19. Ireland: 30.5%
20. Switzerland: 30.0%
21. Slovakia: 29.4%
22. USA: 26.8%
23. Korea: 25.6%
24. Mexico: 19.8%

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BOB SULLIVAN, MSNBC - When pollsters ask Americans about privacy, most
say they are concerned about losing it. An MSNBC survey. . . found an
overwhelming pessimism about privacy, with 60 percent of respondents
saying they feel their privacy is "slipping away, and that bothers me."
. . . [But] only a tiny fraction of Americans - 7 percent, according to
a recent survey by The Ponemon Institute - change any behaviors in an
effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at
toll booths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track automobile
movements. And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Carnegie Mellon
privacy economist Alessandro Acquisti has run a series of tests that
reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security
numbers just to get their hands on a measly 50-cents-off coupon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/

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ROBERT PEAR, NY TIMES - Despite the surge of women into the work force,
mothers are spending at least as much time with their children today as
they did 40 years ago, and the amount of child care and housework
performed by fathers has sharply increased, researchers say in a new
study, based on analysis of thousands of personal diaries. . .
The researchers found that "women still do twice as much housework and
child care as men" in two-parent families. But they said that total
hours of work by mothers and fathers were roughly equal, when they
counted paid and unpaid work. Using this measure, the researchers found
"remarkable gender equality in total workloads," averaging nearly 65
hours a week. The findings are set forth in a new book, "Changing
Rhythms of American Family Life," published by the Russell Sage
Foundation and the American Sociological Association. The research
builds on work that Ms. Bianchi did in 16 years as a demographer at the
Census Bureau.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/17kids.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

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