Money for Nothing

The United Nations continues its winning streak with this bit of news about Asian Tsunami Relief. It appears that of the $590 million designated for that purpose, up to a third went to overhead expenses.

This is atrocious. A good charitable organization spends 10% or less on overheard (which includes administrative costs, staff salaries, and other expenses). The remarkable inefficiency of the United Nations should demonstrate why it is not an effective organization through which to prosecute the national security agenda of the United States.

Of course, the United States government is no model of efficiency. Whenever people talk about nationalized healthcare, I cringe at the thought of what Congress and the state and federal bureaucracies would do with it. I think one set of red tape (the American kind) is quite enough.