It was only a matter of time before the UN came up with a proposal to tax the rich to create a worldwide "social safety net" for the poor.

Now, they're getting serious about it. Deseret News:

"No one should live below a certain income level," stated Milos Koterec, President of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. "Everyone should be able to access at least basic health services, primary education, housing, water, sanitation and other essential services."

These services were presented at the forum as basic human rights equal to the rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The money to fund these services may come from a new world tax.

"We will need a modest but long-term way to finance this transformation," stated Jens Wandel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Development Program. "One idea which we could consider is a minimal financial transaction tax (of .005 percent). This will create $40 billion in revenue."

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

Valero's speech to the forum focused on capitalism as the source of the world financial problems.

When asked where she expected the money to provide all needy people with a basic income, healthcare, education and housing would come from, Fatima Rodrigo, one of the presenters at the forum, mentioned the "very small tax of .005 percent."

She added, "There is plenty of money, we just need to stop spending it on militaries and wars."

It certainly is a novel approach; condemning capitalism and then taxing it to fund planetary social welfare schemes. It does no good to point out the idiocy of such plans; the UN bureaucrats are oblivious. They are also immune to charges of hypocrisy since they actually believe that money grows on trees and that countries like America are hogging all the wealth.

All those poor countries in Africa and Asia? Perhaps the UN should talk to them first about cutting their military budgets. They spend far more per capita on defense than we do.

Then maybe we wouldn't need a "global tax" to transfer wealth to nations that don't need it - or where the cash would only end up in some kleptocrat's Swiss bank account.