In 1945, after WWII ended the United Nations was formed. Its mandated purpose was to:
“promote and facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, political freedoms, democracy, and achievement of lasting world peace.”
Now those are noble goals, to be sure, and admittedly they set the bar pretty high for themselves. However, 68 years later the UN is an abysmal failure, and it’s abundantly clear to anyone that is paying attention that literally every single principle mentioned in their charter is being consistently and repeatedly broken, oft-times by the founding nations themselves!
What about that peace mandate? There are currently over 36 wars being waged globally, so you be the judge…
As a “quasi” world government, the UN is able to extract money by force (do government’s have any other play book?). The result has been the Mother Ship expanding like kudzu, spawning in its wake organizations such as the WHO (World Health Organization), the ILO (International Labor Organization) and dozens of other useless, bureaucratic nightmares. Mind you they have grown exponentially whilst achieving less and less with each passing year. In the same way that Amtrak “successfully” operates solely via grotesque theft from the US taxpayer, so too the UN will keep sucking in tax dollars and engorging itself like a video game-playing fat kid downing chips and sodas 12 hours a day. The only difference being that the fat kid makes no assertions that he is bettering human kind.
Rest assured, new “problems” in need of meddling will be found, ensuring more capital is “urgently needed” mis-allocated, or outright wasted. The UN is one of the most opaque, diplomatically immune, unaccountable to its funders, (largely the US tax payer) entities in the world, and much like any other bureaucracy views the tax dollars which fund it, not as a privilege to be earned, but as an “entitlement”.
I’ve personally seen some of the most ill-conceived UN-sponsored projects, debacles that no sane person would dream up, get implemented. They all came complete with false, UN-created reports which were cobbled together in order to enlarge the scope of said “assistance” program. These “programs”, I might add, are typically just transfer of payment mechanisms from “poor people in wealthy, developed countries”, to “unbelievably wealthy, corrupt politicians in poor countries”.
These NGO folks are driving around Africa, Asia and most of the poor countries of the world in their air-conditioned Land Cruisers, spending money they don’t deserve on projects that most third graders would scoff at.
We saw it plain as day in Cambodia last week. They’ve got it good…and they know it. I met a woman on the plane from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap who worked for the WHO. What a joke. She was “living” in a $250/night resort, being chauffeured around in, you guessed it, a Land Cruiser. She was agitated when I met her because her Cambodian driver, who is likely getting paid the minimum $70’ish per month, forgot to pick her lazy butt up at 6 AM and shuffle her to the airport. She had to take a taxi… God forbid!
NO way they let the party end! Sadly, and almost unbelievably, many of these same individuals believe in what they are doing, which just accelerates the growth of these parasitic institutions. Make no mistake, they ARE parasites.
The UN’s existence is absolutely destructive, period. Remember, before you send me email from Ohio telling me I’m wrong, I grew up in Africa, I have seen this crap first hand. I won’t argue that many well-intentioned successful projects the UN may have had in the early days don’t exist, but those days are long gone, and certainly on balance and for the enormous amount of capital squandered this institution now simply leaves in its wake a destructive, powerful, bureaucratic force. The fact that today the UN has any legitimacy left is testament to the Walmart car park ignorance of an intellectually indifferent, media-fed populace.
So what’s the answer?
Undoubtedly what has had the greatest impact throughout man’s troubled history on this ball of dirt, has been harmony created by trade. Centralized, top-down administration of principles, when forced on people of differing beliefs, whether they be religious (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc.), political or otherwise has a spectacular failure rate. Free trade and the free flow of goods and services – allowing individuals to choose how and with whom they trade – has had THE highest rate of success, bar none.
Let’s take multinational corporations for example…they are everything that the UN pretends to be. They are filled with people from various cultures working in countries scattered across the globe, they are characterized by people of all religions, race, ethnic groups, and they are all trying to help each other rather than obliterate each other. Whats more is they are producing goods and services which the market desires and turning a profit doing so.
Why? Because the free market works. It is in essence people acting of their own free will to further their own objectives. It’s not selfish, it’s human!
Humans are self-interested animals. That should be apparent. Let’s get over the concept that we’re inherently chivalrous, philanthropic, self-less spiritual beings with our sole reason to exist being to better the lives of everyone else. Bull$%&#. For the most part we are always going to look after #1. Doubt me? Next time you’re on an airplane and the stewardess (sorry, flight attendant) gives you the safety demonstration take note of who she tells you to put the oxygen mask on first (hint: it’s YOURSELF!). The reason for this should be obvious, but if not I’ll spell it out: We are incapable of helping others if we ourselves are not safe, secure and stable… This same “safety” principle extends to economics and personal finance.
Multinationals work on the premise that humans ARE self-interested. Thus they produce products which they believe cater to the self-interest of consumers (also humans, by the way). They are forced by the market to adjust their actions, products and business practices all over the world, almost in real time.
McDonalds in New Delhi serves curried burgers. In Asia you can buy a green tea and red bean ice cream sundae, and get seaweed seasoning for your fries. In Japan they will sell you shrimp burgers. Even in Hawaii the traditional “orange drink soda” is replaced with fruit punch!
I would suggest that McDonald’s has done more to “promote and facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, political freedoms, democracy, and achievement of lasting world peace” than the UN ever has…and this from a company that sells God awful cardboard masquerading as food!
– Chris
“None of us is as good as all of us.” – Ray Kroc
This Post Has 54 Comments
That was fun reading, you got a lot off your chest. McD’s is not bad, but I prefer Burger King.
Its amazing that the development industry is expanding rapidly, both in terms of total funds and staff. Two issues
1. Countries like China have become net donors – they give more than they receive.
2. If the industry was really smart and did an excellent job there would be little or no need for the industry
are typically just transfer of payment mechanisms from “poor people in wealthy, developed countries”, to “unbelievably wealthy, corrupt politicians in poor countries”
Looking at administration costs, payments to consultants etc, I suppose a decent chunk remains in developed countries!
Hey Chris,
I agree whole-heartedly. The banksters need a “front”
for their globalist agenda to rape pillage and plunder
for the good of mankind of course. Makes ya warm and
fuzzy all over huh? Just add fiat currency and let the killing
begin. Yay their days are NUMBERED! Enjoy the posts.
Tony
spot fucking on!!!! Well done!!! Should be an op ed. in NY Times or similar around the the “developed” countries.
Feel exactly the same way about the UN. Hate their hypocrisy. Complete and utter waste of, well, just about everything. A good US puppet though.
First saw them in real action in Mongolia in 2000. In UB with their Landcruisers and cell phones. Never saw them in the countryside.
Same in Burma. $100,000 Landcruisers where most people make a dollar a day. Met a woman there who had worked in a UNDP for several years, developing traditional weaving in Chin state. She was Chin. She had her own shop selling same when I met her. I asked her what she thought of the UN. She just smiled and said “I do it myself now”. And their lack of action after Nargis in Burma was criminal.
Met another Canadian who signed up for 2 years to teach at their training school in Italy. Came home after one year as could not deal with the cover-your-ass political bullshit at the school.
The sooner the world is rid of the UN, the better.
Keep on!!
Multinationals “are forced by the market to adjust their actions, products and business practices all over the world, almost in real time.” And they also are forced by governments to adjust to all those ever-changing regulations.
Boggles the mind, it does.
Hi guys
Just wanted to say thank you for the work you’ve put into this site. I’ve been reading for a couple of years and it keeps getting better. Plus the price is quite compelling!
My question is as follows: How do you reconcile free markets with what happened in the recent Bangladeshi garment worker disaster?
My issue is not that the employees there are working as “slave labour” as some left-leaning individuals would have us believe. Whilst the wages they earn might seem extraordinarily low compared to developed world levels, they are set by local market conditions. If people can make more money down the road, then I’m sure they would move. Or another way of saying it, people are not forced to work for any one company.
The real issue here is people’s working conditions and safety. Surely, the government or other centralised top-down administration needs to ensure that people work in a safe enough environments. In Bangladeshi, that was patently not the case. A fully liberalised economy would require that individuals take responsibility for themselves and if a factory building looks weak then they should vote with their feet and leave. But that doesn’t work in practice. When I was, say, 18 I had no idea if a building’s safety was an issue, so someone else needs to help out.
So how do you see the balance between free markets and government intervention working in an idealised world and in practice?
Thanks
Thanks Matthew.
I would suggest that the recent disaster in Bangladesh is the direct result of an incredibly corrupt political system.
One could suggest that better standards are demanded, however in Bangladesh laws are so numerous that implementation of them is simply never going to happen. More laws are not the answer. Witness the GFC involving the financial services industry. This is THE most regulated industry in the world yet it never stopped the mess. Now that system (the financial services industry and system it operates in) is not capitalism but crony capitalism.
I wrote an article https://capitalistexploits.at/2012/08/this-is-who-will-save-the-world/ dealing with this issue. Let me know if this doesn’t explain my thinking on your question.
I wasn’t expecting such a speedy response. I’m in London and it’s about 11am. I hope you’re not in Asia!
I read that previous article, but thanks for the reminder.
Are you suggesting that the Bangladesh political system was in some way responsible for the poor building quality? I’ve not come across that line of thinking, could you expand a little on that?
I’m suggesting that in a bankrupt corrupt political system where the few control the many, disasters of this kind are an absolute certainty regardless of what departments are created, staffed to “deal” with the problems or what laws are passed.
In Europe and the US we will continue to find problems in infrastructure, ultimately building standards, financial infrastructure (already incredibly corrupt) and so forth. This is not a set of issues that can be effectively dealt with by any political system which treats individual adults and business like children attempting to control every aspect of lives and businesses. When that takes place costs skyrocket, corruption sets in (in order to remain competitive) and standards fall. We need only look at a system such as Hong Kong or Singapore where the freedom to run your personal life and business life is vastly greater than in a place such as Bangladesh.
The UN today has to be accountable to Citizens not governments , and has to be accountable and transparent .
Taxes are used to fund the UN , yet the people in charge of the UN are legally unaccountable for their actions , and their decisions are totally opaque .
Also the idea that their has to be 100% agreement before action can be taken is undemocratic . In a democratic society it is the majority who win , their can never be 100% agreement .
The UN is outdated , inefficient , with unelected people being appointed to posts , and the lack of success in many of their actions today prove that action should be taken to reform the organisation.
Chris says
We need only look at a system such as Hong Kong or Singapore where the freedom to run your personal life and business life is vastly greater than in a place such as Bangladesh.
Firstly , Singapore has little or no legislation , and is a free for all , with money taking precedence over everything .
Ask Singaporeans what they think of their country today , it is overcrowded , expensive with massive immigration which is basically quantity not quality , and the Singapore culture is disappearing . Want proof , look at the 1000 citizens a month leaving the country , that the government tries to hide . Look at the lack of freedom of speech , lack of an equitable medical system for all , many things are bad in Singapore .
i have seen personally first hand at how corrupt the UN is. As a soldier in Bosnia in the 90’s we stood shocked as we watched UN employees driving out in their brand new imported Japanese land cruisers, and then selling them on the local black market for tens of thousands of dollars. Then shouting being hijacked and the vehicles stolen. ;ots of wasted time on looking for vehicle hijackers. I have also seen how UN countries sent their soldiers to countries in civilian clothing straight of the plane in a warzone, stating the UN should equip them. Which they did with brand new equipment from the US and Britian (ie US and Brit military kit, vehicles etc). Then load it on a container ship and send it back to their country. In the mean time shipping out their own army kit. The UN is shockingly corrupt and an absolute joke. Any dictator, Russian president knows this.
That’s very interesting. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Coming from someone who was clearly on the ground observing the incredible corruption. It makes me sick to see it take place but what makes me sicker still is that the vast majority of sheeple regard these institutions with respect, and that is the real tragedy.