UN Agency Wants New Global Tax to Help Poor

By Newsroom America Staff at 3 Feb 2012

(Newsroom America) -- The head of a United Nations economic agency says a new world tax is needed to help finance a "social protection floor" for the world's poor.

Speaking at UN Headquarters in New York City earlier this week, Jens Wandel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Development Program, said such an effort would require a "modest" but "long-term way" to "finance this transformation."

"One idea which we could consider is a minimal financial transaction tax (of .005 percent). This will create $40 billion in revenue," said Wandel, floating the idea of what would essentially become a world tax, the Deseret News reported.

The concept of a global financial transaction tax has been mentioned before at the UN as a means of providing more funding for the organization's various humanitarian missions. The latest incarnation of the global tax came as part of a Civil Society Forum, whose aim is to establish "universal access to basic social protection and social services."

"No one should live below a certain income level," Milos Koterec, President of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, said, in comments reported by Deseret News.

"Everyone should be able to access at least basic health services, primary education, housing, water, sanitation and other essential services," he said.

"It is absolutely essential to establish controls on capital movements and financial speculation," added Ambassador Jorge Valero, the current Chairman of the Commission on Social Development. He would like to see a "progressive policies of taxation" that would require "those who earn more to pay more taxes."

Other officials at the forum blamed military spending and spending on wars for funding shortages of what they see as basic necessities of an acceptable income, healthcare, education and housing.

"There is plenty of money, we just need to stop spending it on militaries and wars," Fatima Rodrigo, one of the presenters at the forum, said, according to the paper.

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