Re: martin l. gross book
Topics: Misc
21 Sep 1993
From: ervan
> [ The U.N. is almost broke because the U.S. is not paying its dues. ]
Their budget is about $10G/year. The U.S. pays fully 1/3 of that
(not including DoD costs when we participate in so called 'peace
keeping' operations). Reagan refused to pay some of it until
the U.N. stopped flagrantly wasting it. I'm not sure what became
of that. At best, the U.N. is a bad joke. At worst, it's world
dictatorship. Trying to impose a government on Somalia proves this
to me. On the substance of it, the U.S. should withdraw.
World political opinion would be so negative, perhaps we should
just let it wither instead.
I see the U.N. today very much like the U.S. 200 years ago (as
I return to your comment on states' rights). The ease of
communication and freedom of commerce between the original
states roughly parallels that between nations today, i.e.
even though the U.N. is 'bigger', the world is 'smaller'.
The original U.S. did two things:
1) Provided national security at a more efficient level.
2) Tried to prevent war between the states.
3) Had a long list of 'must nots' that it imposed on states,
e.g. the Bill of Rights, no tariffs, no coinage, etc.
All of these things were for the better. States were then free
to compete on other matters. Unfortunately, the federal
government has grown into a huge, intrusive, and destructive
monster.
While the U.N. consisted of a loose collective concerned with
security matters, it was useful. Now, it is on the same path
as the U.S. federal government of becoming intrusive. It is
starting out even worse because the U.N. has no set of must
nots, but unfortunately has a long list of 'musts' which it
is busy trying to impose.
----Ervan
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