Judged by the Company We Keep?

Kenneth Bledsoe - April 24, 2008 - 4:44 pm

We all know that the U.S. is by far the largest debtor to the United Nations. In fact, the U.S. represents 94% of all debt to the U.N. regular budget. This means that 6% of the debt to the UN regular budget comes from other countries.

Often people will respond by saying, "Of course the U.S. has the largest debt, since they are the largest contributors." This is certainly a valid point. The U.S. is expected to pay 22% of the UN's regular budget--more than anyone else in the world. Obviously then, if we miss any payment at all, it will represent a large percentage of the debt. The question then, is this:

How does the U.S. proportion of the debt stack up to others when compared to the amount they are expected to pay?

I crunched these numbers, and I found out something interesting. There are two countries that stand out when you compare their percentage of the debt and their expected payment: the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Both of these countries have a percentage of the total debt to the UN regular budget that is 426% of what they are expected to pay annually. For comparison, Japan's debt stands at just over 5% of what they are expected to pay each year.

This statistic says a lot about comparative attitudes toward the UN and engagement with the rest of the world. If this is the preferred measure of those who would withhold funding from the UN, it should give them pause to realize the company they keep by doing so.

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NorthernComments @ Mar 24th 2009 2:11PM

The entire world is experiencing an economic crisis on a horrendous scale, that is leaving millions homeless starving and worse. I have an idea that I think could help change the face of how this world conducts global economic operations around the world, however it will take the cooperation of every country on the planet.
My idea is to take the global debt of all nations around the world and slash it by 50 Percent. This reduction has to include all countries of the world, not just those in some high powered industrialized club of world governance. After the world dept has been slashed, all countries would have to agree that the slashed debt is considered paid. The resulting paid debt will then go to an international fund governed by a body of all the worlds’ countries, where it can be used to assist countries on economic development, and to provide for environmental and transnational corporate regulation.
A new form of monetary trading currency would have to be established for all cross country transactions. The easiest way to establish the currency value of this new monetary system would be to take the GDP of the entire world, and base it off the median of that number. This would ensure that all countries would have a vested interest in helping all other nations in raising their own GDP so that the transnational currency will have greater buying power.
A centralized currency based off the world economy would allow for the enforcement of rules and regulations as established by an international body in the form of import/export taxes on any nation state not wanting to follow international law.
Something has to happen in our global economy on a huge and dynamic fashion to break us free from the chains of old, and destructive patterns of world governance, and economic interaction. I feel that this plan could be a step in the right direction, but it would require the countries of the world to let the most damaging force on the planet free from individual control, into a world body where all have an equal say. That Force is money.

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