Pope exits stage left, UN comes into focus

Pope Francis is back safe and sound in the Vatican after leaving his leftist message in America. And this week, the focus falls on the United Nations and their leftist message.

Housed in America and funded largely by American taxpayers, the United Nations in so many ways is the enemy within.

The United Nations mirrors the thoughts of our president that America is the source of many worldwide problems because of our colonialist past. That narrative says that America plundered the riches of the world for our own gain.

And now it's time to pay the piper.

To set the stage for addresses from the leaders of Russia and America, the United Nations over the weekend agreed to a set of new global goals they hope will improve the lives primarily of undeveloped countries.

These new global goals come with a price.

Are you sitting down? The cost is a cool $3 trillion annually. Forever!

With this outlay of cash, the United Nationss hopes to end poverty and hunger, fight inequality, and, above all, fight that nasty climate change.

But even those sterling diplomats at the U.N. realize the financial goals are lofty to say the least. And most countries around the globe don't actually have a few trillion sitting in the bank.

So the real focus will fall on global business interests to make up the difference. And as a freshman economics course will teach you, when business is "forced" to spend more, they tend to hike their prices to cover those added costs.

Searching for ways to generate this $3 trillion annual outlay, the United Nationss believes that some nations are doing a lackluster job of tax collections and attacking tax evasion.

So they propose a team of "tax inspectors without borders" to help nations meet their funding goals.

These new global initiatives replace the earlier and equally popular Millennium Development Goals, also designed to address poverty in developing nations.

What's missing from the discussion on addressing poverty in Third World nations is the glaring fact that America -- and other developed nations --- currently provides billions in foreign aid to those very same countries.

But the redistributionists in the United Nations and the White House believe we still "owe" a debt. The sole obstacle is coercing America and others to spend even more taxpayer dollars on top of already massively failed programs from the past.

It is nothing short of pure folly to believe developed nations and the private sector can somehow spend Third World nations out of poverty.

Why can anyone assume that more trillions in relief efforts will be any more effective than prior trillions?

The United Nations has not lost its way. From its origins, the mission was to take from the producers and give to the nonproducers.

I suspect they are simply more emboldened with the current occupant of the White House.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Sikeston Standard Democrat.