It's the U.N.'s wildest dream come true. France, Brazil, Chile and even the United Kingdom have taken the first steps toward implementing a global tax on airline travel.

It's the U.N.'s wildest dream come true.

France, Brazil, Chile and even the United Kingdom have taken the first steps toward implementing a global tax on airline travel.

The tax is simple: passengers will pay anywhere from one to 40 euros on each ticket they purchase. The final amount of the tax depends on the length of the flight and the class of the ticket.

According to the BBC, more than 100 million people pass through French airports each year, and will, therefore be subject to the tax. In France alone, the tax will generate an estimated $248 million per year in revenue.

The BBC reports that "Initially, the money will go to combating Aids in Africa."

But we all know that won't last. For starters, the money or the drugs it purchases are likely to pass through some U.N. agency or another on their way to African Aids victims.

But remember the funds for the southeast Asian tsunami victims? The U.N. made sure to get its cut, while the real victims were victimized a second time.

So we can be sure that the U.N. will consume some portion of this new cash bonanza.

And the destination for the money six months or a year from now is left suspiciously undefined. Of course, the U.N. bureaucrats have been agitating for "dedicated sources of revenue" for decades.

Meanwhile, France isn't the only country moving forward with the new tax on air travel. Similar taxes are being implemented in Chile and Brazil, and the United Kingdom has agreed to turn over a portion of revenue from an existing levy on air travel.

In addition to handing the foxes at the U.N. the keys to the financial hen house, the French plan sets a precedent and, indeed, provides a roadmap for future global taxation schemes. Because so many international air travelers pass through a limited number of hub airports (like Heathrow in London, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Frankfurt in Germany, Narita in Tokyo), if only a handful of nations embrace the French plan and cave to the U.N.'s cash grab, they will effectively levy a global tax.

So, in this way, even if the U.S. government refuses to go along with a global tax plan – whether on airline tickets, petroleum products, currency transactions or e-mail – the U.N. can get its hand in American wallets through surrogates and supporters in other nations.

But who would it surprise that the French were the first to surrender to the U.N?