(NEW YORK) MintPress – It’s a plan that could have come straight from Robin Hood, the heroic outlaw in English folklore known for “robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.”
The United Nations on Thursday, in a report that accuses wealthy nations of breaking promises to step up aid for the less fortunate, called for an annual lump sum tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries.
That is one of a host of measures included in the “World Economic and Social Survey 2012: In Search of New Development Finance,” intended to find new ways to help the world’s poor as cash that has been pledged fails to materialize.
It found that the needs of developing countries were not being met and that more money was needed to fight challenges like climate change.
“Donor countries have fallen well short of their aid commitments, and development assistance declined last year because of budget cuts, increasing the shortfall to $167 billion,” said the report’s author, Rob Vos, in a statement. “We are suggesting various ways to tap resources through international mechanisms.”
“In short, such new financing mechanisms will help donor countries overcome their record of broken promises,” he said.
Taxing the super-rich
The report estimates that the number of people around the world who are worth at least $1 billion rose this year to 1,126.
That includes 425 billionaires in the United States, 315 in the Asia-Pacific region, 310 in Europe, 90 in other North and South American countries and 86 in Africa and the Middle East.
With a combined wealth of some $4.6 trillion, a one percent tax would raise more than $46 billion, according to the report.
“The ‘average’ billionaire would own $3.7 billion after paying the tax,” it says. “If that billionaire spent $1,000 a day, it would take him or her over 10,000 years to spend all of his or her wealth.”
The report claims that the wealth of billionaires grew, on average, 4 percent a year in the two decades before the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
“If that rate of growth returned with no wealth tax, the average billionaire’s wealth would double in less than 18 years,” it states.
Additional measures
Taxing billionaires is one of a host of international levies proposed by the U.N. Other ideas include a tax of $25 per ton on carbon dioxide emissions, which could be collected by national governments and allocated to international causes. The report estimates that would raise about $250 billion.
It also suggests a 0.0005 percent transaction tax on the four main currencies, the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen, the Eurozone euro and the British pound sterling, which could raise $40 billion a year.
Also on the table is the idea of taking a portion of a proposed European Union tax on financial transactions for international use. The tax is expected to raise as much as $78 billion a year.
Additionally, it proposes expanding a levy on air tickets that several countries already impose to raise money for drugs for poor nations through UNITAID, another U.N. initiative. According to the report, more than $1 billion has been handed over to UNITAID since the tax was first implemented in 2006.
France, for example, has a tax of €1 on domestic flights in economy class and €10 in business class. It has a €6 tax for economy seats and a €40 tax for business class seats on international flights.
Turning vision into reality
Despite its well-documented suggestions for raising billions, the U.N. plays a marginal role in economic issues and has no authority or mechanisms to enforce an international tax. It can only urge its 193 members to do so.
“Realizing the potential of these mechanisms will require international agreement and corresponding political will, both to tap sources as well as to ensure allocation of revenues for development,” said Vos.
U.N. Secretary General also Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that if the new “innovative financing” is to become viable, “strong international agreement is needed.”
It would certainly have the support of Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men.