The U.N. Wants to Tax the World Out of Poverty

James M. Roberts / September 22, 2010

At the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit in New York this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero both called for a global financial transaction tax to fund foreign aid projects to lift the world’s poor out of poverty. Sounding more like a populist politician than an international civil servant, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chimed in supportively, warning developed countries not to “balance budgets on the backs of the poor.”

Trouble is, there is little evidence that the vast sums of tax dollars expended on Official Development Assistance (ODA, or foreign aid) by U.N. donor governments in the past 50 years have made much of a difference. In fact, foreign aid may actually impede the economic growth needed to achieve the MDGs. (more…)