We recently reported on the new United Nations drive for global taxes (See: Global Taxes Are Back, Watch Your Wallet), describing proposals for world-wide taxes on e-mails and Internet use, a global gas tax, levies on airline travel and several others. We warned that, if adopted, American taxpayers could wind up paying hundreds of billions of dollars each year to the United Nations.
Does this warning sound a little farfetched? After all, you might be saying, who in their right mind would support world-wide taxes? And what possible reason could they have for backing this insanity?
Take a look at what global tax advocates have to say, in their own words:
Philosophy and Motivation behind Global Tax Proposals
ATTAC France, an organization founded to press European governments to support global taxes, in a statement on their website detailing the group’s positions:
"International taxation is indispensable for reaching those who are enriching themselves within the neo-liberal system of globalization, further impoverishing billions of people."
Richard Cooper, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, in an essay for Foreign Affairs magazine:
"For problems such as reducing emissions [in order to address global warming], the favorite instrument of economists is to tax the offending activity. All countries could agree to impose a common carbon emissions tax, which would increase the price of fossil fuels in proportion to their carbon content."
George Soros, who made billions through trading currencies in the open market, recently announcing that he has come to favor of a tax on currency trades:
"Why should there be a value added tax on physical transactions, but no tax on financial transactions?"
James A. Paul and Katarina Wahlberg, in a foundational 2002 paper titled "Global Taxes for Global Priorities," published by the Global Policy Forum, an advocacy organization with official "U.N. Observer" status:
"Bold and innovative steps are urgently needed to tap the world’s wealth. Global taxes offer the most promising approach."
"Global taxes have three parallel purposes: (1) policy steering, (2) revenue raising, and (3) income re-distribution."
"Global taxes can also help overcome the world’s growing inequality by systematically redistributing revenue."
"As recently as the mid-1990’s, global taxes seemed a distant hope … But today the political power balance has shifted. [Organizations] have built a worldwide mass movement and put global taxes on the political agenda. Politicians and governments in Europe and in major countries of the global South such as Brazil and India now back a currency transaction tax. Implementation seems a lively possibility."
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, in a speech to a 2003 international conference, announcing that world taxes are a requirement for global advancement:
"Surely, [international] corporations would not grudge a small global tax after all the profits they get."
A New Straits Times (of Malaysia) article on Mahathir’s speech also included this paraphrase of the former Prime Minister’s view:
"Dr. Mahathir said in a virtual global nation, the corporations which benefit most from global trading and business must pay tax on their profits to the globalized world, through a global agency."
Lula da Silva, President of Brazil, in a 2003 announcement of his plan to create a giant fund from the proceeds of a new global tax that would give resources to governments of poor nations in order to fight hunger and disease:
"There are various ways to generate resources for a fund of this nature. I give you two examples. The first is taxation of the international arms trade … Another possibility is to create mechanisms to stimulate the rich countries [to] reinvest into this fund a percentage of the interest payments made by debtor countries [on loans made by the IMF and World Bank]."
A Joint Declaration, signed by Lula, French President Jacques Chirac, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, announcing that they will support and press for Lula’s plan as well as the global tax on currency trades:
"We decide to … Promote innovative sources of financing such as … taxation on certain international transactions such as, among others, certain kinds of arms sales and certain financial transactions."
Chirac, underscoring what he considers a pressing need for global taxes:
"We cannot avoid setting up a system of international taxation."
Annan, following the announcement of the joint declaration, expressing his support for new global taxes:
"It would be extremely helpful."
Annan, again, this time in July of 2004, reiterating his support for global taxes:
"We need action. There is an urgent need for a critical mass of new resources."
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then-Prime Minister of India, voicing his support in a 2003 speech for a world wide tax on currency trades:
"I believe this is a reform whose time has come."
From any rational perspective, global taxation is a terrible idea. Yet international leaders and liberal zealots are determined to achieve their world taxation objectives. If they succeed, billions of dollars each year will be "redistributed" from American taxpayers to governments of failed third world states. Don’t take our word for it — take theirs. With the U.N. General Assembly scheduled to discuss a U.N. study on the imposition of global taxes next month, be ready to make your voice heard.
August 19, 2004