A failed United Nations should downsize; little return for American taxpayers

The UN building in New York should be sold, and the entire organization needs downsizing.(Washington, DC)—In early March, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called the U.S. a “deadbeat” donor, saying the UN’s largest donor, supplying 22 percent of the $4.86 billion operating budget, is $1 billion in arrears. Now some things the federal government does make you wonder if high I.Q.s and Ivy League degrees are good for the country. But in the case of the UN, supplying 22 percent of that budget is akin to madness. There’s a recession on in the US and the Obama administration has already come up with enough spending and borrowing to lock our offspring in step with China for generations to come.

Why exactly does the US foot that kind of bill for an organization comprising 192 member states? I looked for a breakdown of top dues payers, and I was further astonished by what I found.

On the chart at the end of this article, which actually breaks down dues for 2005, Japan is second highest at 19.47 percent. China pays a measly 2 percent and except for the US and Japan, every other donor is in the single digits! And please do not insult me by noting some sort of per capita standard as they do when measuring carbon emissions. That is an insult to reality.

I can hear the lefties out there going, “But the U.S. is the richest country.” And why do you suppose that has been the case? In a nutshell, freedom—both individual and marketplace freedom, at least until recently. I expect those to continue to decline with current administration policies, not the least of which is collectivism-socialism accomplished by means of economic class warfare. Tell people it’s okay to rob the rich over and over and pretty soon theft becomes acceptable. Note that I can say that because I am not rich.

Straying from original goals
When the UN held its first formal meeting January 10, 1946, there were a number of speeches, and the chairman, Dr. Zuleta Angel of Colombia, summed up the goals. One was the maintenance of peace and security by collective resource. Another was the sharing of “land, sea and air forces.” And here’s the real rub—each member nation’s security “would be collectively guaranteed by adequate and effective means, and any aggression or attempt at aggression directed against them would be severely repressed.” Obviously there is a colossal failure on that last point: September 11 and other acts of terror committed against the U.S. by radicals who would be very pleased if the whole world were fundamentalist Muslim. But the frictions are more widespread than that.  Consider the ongoing slaughter in numerous places in the world where leaders have failed their people miserably. Consider Oil for Food scandals. Rwanda. The short life spans of journalists in Russia. Member Iran's goal to "eradicate" member Israel. We could fill a big book with UN failures.

It's time to downsize a money-eater
The UN operates a lavish headquarters in New York and offices in several other cities around the world. Taking a look at the 2008-2009 budget for “administrative, financial and institutional matters,” it is very easy to see why President Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon are kindred spirits. Staff costs alone for the UN total approximately $36 million.

Technology has brought us a long way from the day in 1946 when global travel was arduous and communications were challenged. Why in fact does the UN even need a building? Why can’t they have a global conference once or twice a year and shave their expenditures? The papers could be housed in one of many official libraries around the world.

What are Americans being asked to do? “Sacrifice” is Obama’s mantra, though I don’t see sacrifice in Washington. For instance, Congress voted itself a pay raise and budget increases for their offices while they nixed healthcare coverage for wounded veterans. Outrage is too small a word for this kind of behavior.

Americans should come together and demand downsizing the UN, an entity that is virtually a fiefdom in search of revenue from the pockets of hard working Americans and Japanese. Our two countries foot the big bill for the whole deal, letting countries like France off easily. A number of member countries in the UN hate the US and Israel; many of them hate each other and even more have classes within them that hate each other. Aesop said it best: “Familiarity breeds contempt.” That seems apropos when it comes to many member countries’ attitudes towards my own country. And I'm starting to get a little Aesop going myself.

The UN secretary general called us deadbeats even as we “sacrifice” more than any other country. Only Japan comes close. As an unsympathetic American tired of other countries draining our resources and dictating our policy, all I can say to Ban Ki-moon is if we’re deadbeats, the UN is the biggest leech in the history of the world.

It’s time the organization used technology and a modern approach. The tools are there and the benefits would be far more than we realize now.

If there were any real journalists left in mass media (excluding The Wall Street Journal and a couple of other publications that managed to hang onto real journalists), you’d be reading about the UN ripoff in other places too. Unfortunately this is a story that needs to be told but that is being ignored unless somebody calls us a deadbeat. That our president and congress are too spineless to do something about this says a lot about the declining state of leadership in our nation.

These dues figures are for 2005. Obviously the dues assessed the US have risen since then.