How much do crooked politicians and others steal every year?
Nobody really knows, of course, but as the BBC reports today, the UN estimates that $1.6 trillion each year is stolen each year and moved across national borders. Tragically, much of this money is stolen from poor countries. It is bread taken out of the mouths of the poor.
Don’t expect this figure to drop any time soon. Led by Russia, China and Iran, a large group of countries are fighting efforts to crack down.
This money is significantly greater than the value of all foreign development aid. It is more than the ten year cost of the health care bill that just passed the House. It would be enough to fund a worldwide basic health system and provide basic primary education to every child on earth. Over the next fifty years it will cost the world much more than climate change.
More than that, the level of criminality and incompetence demonstrated by the existence of so much theft is the most serious obstacle to economic and social development around the world. It is not just that governments administered by thieves are both indifferent to the plight of the poor and unable to run programs that will help them; it is also that voters in rich countries aren’t stupid. If foreign aid were perceived as being more effective, political support for it would rise.
For American diplomacy, the wholesale corruption of a significant number of powerful officials around the world is a real problem. If we make anti-corruption a real priority in our foreign policy, we will earn the enmity of many of the people, high and low, we need to work with. It’s also not clear ow successful our efforts will be. If we ignore it, we condemn generations of people around the world to poverty and underdevelopment, and we must live with the results — and listen as thievish demagogues in various countries blame international capitalism and American power and greed for the social conditions that result.
There is no good answer for this. Foreign policy is hard. The best answer would probably be the development of a global social movement against corruption. It really is a bigger problem than global warming. The existence of this kind of corruption is often both a consequence and a cause of dictatorial rule. Official thieves don’t like a free press.
In the meantime, $1.6 trillion is a lot of money. Maybe I’m in the wrong line of work.
Of course you are in the wrong line of work. Ask Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Charles Wrangle, Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid and the others in our own government.
“Official thieves don’t like a free press.”
That’s why the White House banned Fox News from its press conferences. Also, a mention of “earmarks” would have been appropriate.
Hence the reason the big lie known as “Cap & Trade” is so popular with the third world. Talk about One Giant Pork Barrel. This is global Income redistribution using the meme “climate debt”. Sheeple need to start bleating a lot more loudly, or you all are going to get raped, big time, by Al Gore and his merry band of thieves.
We’ve had record cold for almost a decade now; so why are we curbing “greenhouse gases” again? To give money to the third world for climate debt? If you buy this crap, you deserve to get ripped-off.
Hey Mead:
Are you joking with this commentary?
The BBC (a socialist therefore corrupt outfit) is quoting yet another thoroughly documented cesspool of corruption, the UN…
Can you say IPCC?
That’s only ONE example…
Do some homework and then you can pretend to be a professional commentator…
Good for the U.N. for moving to throw some light on this problem. However, as the under-reported scandals of Koffi Annan and his ilk have shown, the U.N., far from bucking the trend, is a prime example of graft and corruption going unpunished. Furthermore, the very existence of the U.N. enables this kind of thing to happen: that’s where the Chinas, Russias, and Irans do their fighting back against crackdowns. The first step in finding a solution would be making the U.N. part of it, instead of part of the problem. But I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
If the UN,capitol of world corruption that it is,”estimates” a TRILLION,the total is likely either TEN or ONE HUNDRED trillion, or in between someplace.
Even if,for the first time EVER, the UN is being totally TRUTHFUL here,a trillion IS a LOT of money!
[...] Corruption Costs $1.6 Trillion Per Year – How much do crooked politicians and others steal every year? Nobody really knows, of course, but as the BBC reports today, the UN estimates that $1.6 trillion each year is stolen each year and moved across national borders. Tragically, much of this money is stolen from poor countries. It is bread taken out of the mouths of the poor. [...]
[...] Sex might be in some ways the least of our worries. Government officials steal something like $1.6 trillion per year. (And don’t forget, for everyone who takes a bribe, somebody pays one.) Bankers sell [...]
[...] the way, corruption cost $1.6 Trillion a year… Posted in: Analysis A short explanation of the deep well Horizon situation. → [...]
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