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Quote by: rmnunez Evil, the apportionment of contributions to the UN budget was made when the US was a much larger player in the global economy. Other economies (Germany, Japan, China, Russia...) have grown at faster rates, now the global economic pie is sliced differently. The US GDP comes to almost $11 trillion, about as much as China, Japan and Spain, which together don't add up to a quarter of the UN's dues.
Comparing foreign policies I would note the US is among the few who have any development policy for overseas (most governments put domestic projects under this rubric) so the governments involved in this are basically just a few industrialized westerners. Aid or emergency relief for disasters, famines is also provided almost exclusively by western governments and the US has a great advantage because it is so extensively deployed they can easily get huge volumes of wheat to wherever faster than anyone.
The US also has a much larger non-governmental relief and development effort. Churches and charitable organizations are constantly trying to preserve habitats, save orphans, dig wells, open clinics and schools. The Europeans do this too but they are late on the scene and minuscule by comparison.
The ruckus is over what portion of the government's budget gets spent on development and aid for the third world. A group mischaracterizing Nobel economics laureate Tobin's tax work as advocacy for some sort of international transaction tax for 3rd world development spearheaded a movement (ATTAC) for a mandatory minimum 1% of their government's budget for relief and development in the 3rd world. That was about a decade ago, the EU governments have never achieved the mandatory minimum but they have all generally exceded the US governmental proportion. I think the problem has a bit to do with the size of the US government's budget which is many times greater than any of the EU governments'. |
I was under the impression that the U.N.'s income comes directly in proportion of World GDP. I could be horribly wrong, so I'll look for the info later, when I have more sleep.
I know that developing countries are considered differing by the U.N. than already developed countries, which China and India would still fall under I believe. You don't by chance actually have a breakedown of world GDP? if not, no big whoop, I'll google it tomorrow sometimes.