Governing a United Earth
By Paul VanRaden
July 4, 2023
Updated June 28,
2026
A United Earth could improve billions of lives and
give people much better government than the United Nations can provide with its
weak charter and the veto power of dictators. The United States replaced its
initial Articles
of Confederation from 1777 with the US Constitution in 1789. In 1945, after
the earth’s worst war, the United Nations replaced the former League of Nations.
Today, people pay high taxes for national services but invest almost nothing to
support global services. A new international government could provide more
effective global services than volunteer national governments trying to run the
world. In 2004 I predicted the United States would rewrite its Constitution in
2026 to update the 250-year-old rules that most Americans know are unfair. I did
not predict that we would instead elect a president who promised to be a
dictator on day 1 and now acts as an emperor trying to run the world with
hardly any rules. In 2026, even Chinese and Russian leaders worried that the
world may soon have only the law
of the jungle.
Topics
Taxes
and services
Wars and
peace
Elections
and voting
Beyond
the UN
United
Earth
Taxes and services
People like to keep the money they earn. To keep our money,
we pay some taxes to hire police to arrest thieves or to fund armed services to
prevent other nations from invading and taking everything we own. Our
governments also may provide roads, bridges, schools, research, etc. to benefit
everyone or emergency services to help those in need. Families often budget
their net income to buy the goods and services they feel have the most value. Governments
also should budget their income to give people the most value for the taxes we
pay.
Americans were upset with British taxes 250 years ago, formed
a new government, and declared independence from Great Britain. Colonial
representatives voted to stop paying taxes to their Kingdom and instead to tax
themselves. Today, most US and UK citizens object to paying any taxes to any
other government. Instead, their citizens pay many taxes to their own local or
national governments.
Rich people often prefer no taxation because they can get
what they want directly. Their children will still get excellent private
education even if the government provides no schools. They can quickly go where
they want by private jet, helicopter, or toll road even if the government
provides poor or no public transportation. Their gated communities or mansions
or castles will remain safe even if the government does not police the public streets.
If not taxed, their children can inherit 100% of their wealth. When taxed, rich
people prefer local tax so that more of the benefits come directly back to
them, their community, and their children.
Table 1 lists current taxes paid and
income earned by an example US resident (the author). As percentage of salary,
the taxes I paid in 2022 were 16.4% federal, 4.1% state, 2.8% county, 5.7%
social security, 1.5% medicare, and 0.03% sales, for
a total tax rate of 29.9%. But employee benefits of 15.3% for insurance and
4.0% for retirement matching are not taxed and add another 19.3% of salary.
Also, on average, the social security tax of 5.7% is returned as income later
in life. So, the effective tax rate as percentage of compensation is more like
(29.9% – 5.7%) / 1.193 = 20.3%. The US government contributed some tax from me
to the United Nations (UN), but it was < 0.1% of the federal tax and only a
tiny 0.01% of my salary.
Table 1. Example
income received and taxes collected from 1 U.S. resident in 2022.
|
Category |
Item |
Annual $ |
Percent of salary |
Comments |
|
Income |
Gross salary |
176,300 |
100.0 % |
US Dept. of Agriculture |
|
Taxes |
Federal income tax |
28,964 |
16.4 % |
United States |
|
|
State income tax |
7,233 |
4.1 % |
Maryland |
|
|
County income tax |
4,901 |
2.8 % |
Prince Georges county |
|
|
Social security tax |
9,114 |
5.7 % |
United States |
|
|
Medicare tax |
2,439 |
1.5 % |
United States |
|
|
Sales/gasoline tax |
50 |
0.03 % |
6% MD sales, $0.43 / gallon |
|
|
Property tax |
0 |
0.0 % |
I pay rent instead |
|
|
UN share of federal |
23 |
0.01 % |
US pays 28% of UN budget |
|
|
Total tax |
52,701 |
29.9 % |
Sum of rows 2-8 |
|
Net income |
Salary minus taxes |
123,599 |
70.1 % |
Row 1 minus previous row |
|
Employee benefits |
Retirement matching |
7,052 |
4.0 % |
3% match, 1% automatic |
|
|
Medical/life insurance |
27,000 |
15.3 % |
75% share of premium |
|
Benefits |
Total |
34,052 |
19.3 % |
Sum of previous 2 rows |
|
Compensation |
Salary plus benefits |
210,352 |
119.3 % |
Sum of row 1 + previous |
Local taxes often pay for local services, regional taxes for
regional services, national taxes for national services, and world taxes for
world services. Everyone on earth pays extremely low world taxes and gets
extremely little world government. The UN spends $0.40
(40 cents) per person per year to govern the 8 billion residents of earth. Wealthier
taxpayers must pay more than 40 cents to the annual budget. In 2022 I had to
pay the United Nations $23 indirectly as part of my $28,964 federal income tax.
That year the U.S. government spent $20,000 per person for its 335 million
residents compared to the 40 cents spent by the United Nations. Thus, the US
federal budget spends 50,000 times more per person
than the UN budget.
International governments such as the European Union (EU) and
the African Union (AU) also spend much less per resident than the national
governments of their member nations. In Europe, Germany and France spend 25
times more per person than the EU spends.
In Africa, the governments of Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa spend hundreds
or thousands of times more per person than the AU
spends. Most international governments such as the UN, EU, or AU recommend
policies but have little money to enforce them. Other international agreements
such as the Organization of American States, Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or Arab League may have even less
control or lack any separate budget.
International decisions require member nations to adopt the
policies, but members can choose to ignore the policies or cancel their
membership, as the United Kingdom did when exiting the EU in 2020. Many former
British colonies exited the British Empire during the 1900’s, but many rejoined
into the Commonwealth
of Nations (CN). Several other nations have joined the CN since then.
Nations can be suspended or expelled by the CN after military coups, for
ignoring democratic principles, or for violating human rights. The Commonwealth
adopted a new Charter in 2013 and now includes 56 nations, over 30% of the
world’s population, and 20% of the world’s land. The CN is still headed by the
King of England and does official business in English, but member nations
govern themselves almost independently.
Poor people often prefer more taxation and prefer global,
national, or regional taxes instead of only local taxes. Income, property, and
inheritance taxes collected mainly from richer people and their children can provide
benefits mainly to the poorest people and their children. Local taxes collected
only from poor neighborhoods may provide only poor schools and few services. A
wider tax base promotes much wider equality. Poor people could migrate closer
to where the rich taxpayers live, but rich people use national taxes to catch
the immigrants and deport them back to poor countries to prevent equality. The
main purposes of border walls and border police are to prevent poor people from
voting with their feet as my ancestors did.
Examples of global, regional, national, state, and local
government spending in 2022 are in Table 2. State budgets within the US are
often about half as large per resident as the national budget. County or city
budgets are often more than half of the state budget per resident. In 2022, my
own county spent about $5,000 per resident, Maryland spent about $8,000, and
the US government about $20,000. Each of those budgets and spending levels makes
the $0.40 budget of the UN look trivial. Taxpayers spend a fortune to defend
their territory, but their nations spend almost nothing to make the whole world
better and friendlier.
Table 2.
Spending by local, regional, national, and international governments compared
to population.
|
Government |
Members |
Population |
Annual Budget |
Spending / Capita |
|
|
|
(millions) |
(billion US $) |
($/person/year) |
|
United Nations |
World total |
7,964 |
3.2 |
0.40 |
|
|
India |
1,420 |
549 |
387 |
|
|
China |
1,410 |
5,389 |
3,821 |
|
|
Japan |
124 |
940 |
7,581 |
|
|
United Kingdom |
68 |
700 |
10,294 |
|
European Union |
Europe (EU) total |
448 |
184 |
411 |
|
|
Germany |
83 |
948 |
11,422 |
|
|
France |
65 |
714 |
10,985 |
|
African Union |
Africa total |
1,300 |
0.6 |
0.46 |
|
|
Nigeria |
219 |
40 |
183 |
|
|
Egypt |
108 |
117 |
1,083 |
|
|
South Africa |
61 |
120 |
1,967 |
|
United States |
50 states |
335 |
6,800 |
20,299 |
|
|
Texas |
30 |
250 |
8,333 |
|
|
Florida |
22 |
102 |
4,636 |
|
|
New York |
20 |
212 |
10,600 |
|
|
Vermont |
0.6 |
7 |
11,667 |
|
California |
State total |
39 |
263 |
6,744 |
|
|
Los Angeles county |
10 |
45 |
4,500 |
|
Maryland |
State total |
6.2 |
49 |
7,903 |
|
|
Prince Georges county |
0.97 |
4.6 |
4,742 |
Wars and peace
New governments often arise during and after major wars but
can also result from peaceful cooperation such as joining together in the European
Union from 1958 to present or rewriting a national constitution. Civil wars
can split nations. Military coups and dictators can end democracies, but people
can also build democracies by voting to take power back from leaders who misuse
theirs. This section reviews historical changes in now nations, empires, and
our world are governed.
Historians often measure a government’s success by the land
area or population governed multiplied by how long it lasts. Governments can
grow by conquering new land or by voluntarily joining with neighboring nations
or even with people of distant lands. Wars of conquest may give only short-term
gains of territory if other nations cooperate to reclaim the land stolen, as
Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler, and Hirohito discovered. To survive, a
government should defend its territory from invasion, form defensive alliances,
or be friendly with neighbors so that border trouble is rare. Ideally, cultures can explore, trade, and
interact somewhat peacefully such as Marco Polo’s trip to China, the Dutch East
India company’s transport of spices, or Lewis and Clark’s journey across Indian
land, but the initial friendly encounters can lead to later, large conflicts.
Ancient Egypt thrived for thousands of years with strong,
central government and investments in large infrastructure projects. China and
India had early, advanced, large governments. Rome maintained a large empire
for hundreds of years. Mongol and later Russian empires controlled large parts
of northern Asia. In more recent centuries, England and Spain both used naval power
to discover new continents and control other nations. Such empires governed up
to 20-30% of the world’s population for hundreds of years. Explorers and
emigrants to the discovered lands were expected to support the empire by
trading with or stealing from the citizens of those lands.
The Revolutionary War in 1776 caused 13 colonies that
separated from the British Kingdom to adopt Articles of Confederation and
Perpetual Union in 1781. The colonies had distrusted government and made their initial
federal rules very weak. The colonies also previously strongly objected to
taxation without representation, and after joining as states the new US
government had representation without taxation. The states collected taxes but
could not be forced to send any money to the US government. A few years later,
the states admitted their mistake, introduced federal property taxes, and
adopted a much stronger Constitution to keep them united. Delegates at
the Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia quickly agreed that the previous very weak Articles of
Confederation could not easily be fixed, and instead they replaced those rules
with the US Constitution used since 1789.
The US Civil War required much more central control and
central funding both in the northern and southern states. In the north, federal
income taxes began in 1862 with initial tax rates of 3-5% that increased
up to 10% during the war, later dropped to 2% or 0% in some decades, and since
1913 have had upper rates ranging anywhere from 7% up to 94% during World War
II. During the Civil War, the Confederate war effort was financed partly by
taxes but mainly by government debt that caused inflation averaging 1500% per
year in the south. Historical
Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 1862-2021 | Tax Foundation gives the full
history of US federal income tax rates.
World War I caused many nations to form a League of Nations (LN) in 1920 to keep the post-war
peace. By 1935, 58 members had joined the LN but those did not include the US.
The US Senate had approved joining the LN by a majority but not by the 2/3
majority required by the US Constitution. Rules of the LN required unanimous approval
for almost any action which severely limited its power, but the LN broke its
own rules to expel the Soviet Union after the Soviet Union invaded Finland in
1939. The LN Executive Council had 4 permanent members (Britain, France, Italy,
and Japan). Only 20 years later the LN became useless when the first 2 and the
last 2 of those 4 countries fought on opposite sides of the worst war in world
history. The closing statement of the LN in 1946 said “Let us boldly state that
aggression wherever it occurs and however it may be defended, is an
international crime, that it is the duty of every peace-loving state to resent
it and employ whatever force is necessary to crush it…”
World War II caused many nations to join a new United Nations
to replace the LN but again they gave the UN little power. The 1945 UN Charter
gives the world government little ability to govern or tax, like the 1781 Articles
of Confederation for the US government. Unfortunately, the UN Charter is also
almost impossible to amend. The only amendments were in 1965 and 1973 simply to
increase the sizes of the Security Council and of the Economic and Social
Council after many more nations joined the UN. Getting 2/3 of the general
assembly and 2/3 of all member countries to vote for an amendment could be
possible but getting all 5 permanent members of the Security Council to give up
their veto power may not be possible.
The UN Charter has not been amended in the last 50 years (or
the US Constitution in the last 30 years), but a few UN rules were changed. The
Soviet Union was a permanent member of the Security Council and was able to
veto any UN action, but the Soviet Union was not permanent. When it
disappeared, Russia stole the vote that previously was shared with other Soviet
members. That vote should be rotated among the former Soviet republics such as
to Ukraine every 5th year, or more often to make up for lost
decades. The permanent vote of China previously belonged to Taiwan but was
transferred to Beijing. One other rule change was that a vote
of Abstain is now counted as a Yes. Major nations and
“permanent” members of the security council may prefer a weak UN, but most
citizens of Earth could have better lives with better international government.
The UN authorized use of force in the Korean War to restore democracy
to the south and reunify the country but only the first goal was met. The UN
had almost no role in the Vietnam War but did authorize the first Gulf War in
1990 to free Kuwait after Iraq’s invasion. In 2003 the US could not get a majority of the UN security council to authorize the Iraq
War but invaded anyway. The UN cannot enforce its decisions or conduct the
military actions it authorizes because it employs no soldiers, only
peacekeepers. The US military budget for the defense of 1 nation is > 100
times larger than the UN peacekeeping budget ($753 billion vs. $6.4 billion /
year) for the whole world. The US government also has about 50 times more
employees than the UN employs across the world (2 million vs. 40,000).
Multinational corporations also have budgets far exceeding that of the UN. A few such as Walmart and Amazon employ more
than a million people, generate revenues of about $500 billion, and have annual
profits of $10-100 billion. Large national governments can regulate the
domestic activities of large corporations, but governments in smaller or poorer
countries have little chance to enforce different rules for their people. Large
international governments such as the EU can create common markets and
regulations to benefit both consumers and corporations. Some international
non-government organizations also have large budgets such as the Gates
Foundation spending $7 billion per year, but charity and research are not good
substitutes for law and order and jobs. We need an effective international
government to give some political control to voters instead of all control to
corporations and major nations.
Elections and voting
Democracy is such a good idea that many nations either have
or pretend to have elections. In only
a few nations such as Saudi Arabia, inherited rule is still so strong that
the ruler never asks citizens who they would prefer to run their government.
Some nations elect a ruler who is then removed
from power and replaced by an army general in a military coup. Single-party
states do not allow any other group to challenge the ruling group. Elected
leaders may ban others from running for office, jail them, kill them, control
elections, control the news, ignore the people’s votes, or lie about vote counts.
The 2025 documents linked above show that democracies are not easy to start or
to keep.
Elections let people choose new leaders and better rules or
can pretend to give people a choice. China calls itself a People's Republic,
but citizens may vote only for leaders already chosen by the government.
Communist East Germany called itself the German Democratic Republic. The
Democratic People’s Republic of (north) Korea in April 2026 reelected their
dear leader with 99.99%
turnout and 99.93% YES votes because very few citizens went door to door
trying to convince their neighbors to vote for NO.
Vote counts often use simple math to select who the winners
are or if a proposed law passes, such as in the US Constitution. Article 1,
Section 2 used this math from 1789 to 1868: “Representatives and direct taxes shall
be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this
Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by
adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service
for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other
persons.” Thus, each state got 1 representative for each 30,000 (free person +
slave*3/5 + Indian*0) plus 2 senators. Amendments to the US Constitution require
3/4 of the states or 2/3 of both the House and Senate. A 2/3 vote of the Senate
can approve a treaty or remove a President and 2/3
votes of both the House and Senate can overrule a President’s veto. After the
Civil War, if any state denied the right to vote to a proportion of its voters,
Constitutional Amendment 14, section 2, proportionally reduced that state’s
vote count in the electoral college.
The EU Council since 2014 uses math known as qualified majority
voting. It requires a 55% majority of countries, or 72% if acting on a proposal
from neither the Commission nor from the High Representative, and the countries
must represent a 65% majority of the EU population. At least 4 countries must
vote against a proposal to block it. Before 2014, the EU Council weighted each country’s vote by population size using a
nonlinear function similar to square root that gave
small countries more and large countries less power than in a pure democracy.
Several major action items still require a unanimous vote of EU member nations.
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance compared voting systems around the globe in their 2005 report Electoral
System Design: The New International IDEA Handbook. One of their main conclusions
was “The electoral system should hinder the development of a ‘winner takes all’
attitude which leaves rulers blind to other views and the needs and desires of
opposition voters, and sees both elections and
government itself as zero-sum contests.” Other statements useful for nations to
improve their election rules were:
Sect 79b:
“ethnic and racial minorities across the world are far less likely to be
represented in legislatures elected by FPTP [one winner per district]. In consequence,
if voting behavior does dovetail with ethnic divisions, then the exclusion from
representation of members of ethnic minority groups can be destabilizing for
the political system as a whole.” Then they an example
from India: “The constitution, however, reserves districts for them in
proportion to their numbers in the population, thus reserving 79 seats for the
15 per cent scheduled castes population and 41 seats for the 8 per cent
scheduled tribes population.” The
more modern PR elections let voters choose their parties instead of the
government deciding what your group or race or caste is.
Sect 99c:
“In 2 round voting, apparent losers may cancel the second round with violence.”
That reminded me of the U.S. electoral college system where the loser of an
election (Trump) used violence 2 months later (January 6, 2021) to try to stop
Congress from counting the votes against him.
Sect 104e: “The
incentive under PR systems is to maximize the overall vote regardless of where
those votes might come from.” In U.S. elections the results for many states and
districts are known ahead of time and voters in only a few regions (swing
states and swing districts) decide who wins.
Sect 107b:
“In all regions of the world PR systems do better than FPTP systems in the
number of women elected.”
Sect 172:
“Salvador Allende’s election in Chile in 1970 on 36 per cent of the vote, and opposed
by a right-wing Congress, helped create the conditions for the 1973 military
coup.” (Lincoln’s small percent of vote in 1860).
Sect 189:
“Around the world, about two-thirds of all countries have unicameral
legislatures, while the remaining one-third have some kind of second chamber.”
Sect 228:
“the electoral system should err on the side of including all significant
interests in the legislature.”
Beyond the UN
The UN Charter does not prevent UN members from joining a more
effective United Earth (UE). Most nations already have joined several formal
international organizations to agree on common rules and to coordinate their
trade (NAFTA), police (Interpol), global investment (IMF and World Bank), or
military (NATO) functions. If people foresee more benefits than costs from a
stronger international government, their nations will join and fund the
government to get the benefits.
The UE Charter should value the decisions of leaders chosen in
free elections more than the opinions of dictators. Earth’s citizens cannot
vote directly in world elections or referendums if they cannot vote freely
within their own countries. To obtain more power in the world government, each
nation must give more power to its own citizens. Democracy
ratings are available for each nation and are updated frequently, more
often than the census counts of population. Each nation’s vote should be proportional
to population multiplied by democracy rating. Table 3 shows the vote
calculations for the largest 25 countries by population.
Table 3.
Votes based on democracy rating for the 25 most populous nations.
|
Rank |
Country |
Total Population |
Democracy Rating |
Votes |
World Vote% |
|
1 |
China |
1,397,715,000 |
1.94 |
27 |
10.2 |
|
2 |
India |
1,366,417,750 |
7.04 |
96 |
36.1 |
|
3 |
United States |
328,239,520 |
7.85 |
26 |
9.8 |
|
4 |
Indonesia |
270,625,570 |
6.71 |
18 |
6.8 |
|
5 |
Pakistan |
216,565,320 |
4.13 |
9 |
3.4 |
|
6 |
Brazil |
211,049,530 |
6.78 |
14 |
5.3 |
|
7 |
Nigeria |
200,963,600 |
4.23 |
9 |
3.4 |
|
8 |
Bangladesh |
163,046,160 |
5.99 |
10 |
3.8 |
|
9 |
Russian Federation |
144,373,540 |
2.28 |
3 |
1.1 |
|
10 |
Mexico |
127,575,530 |
5.25 |
7 |
2.6 |
|
11 |
Japan |
126,264,930 |
8.33 |
11 |
4.1 |
|
12 |
Ethiopia |
112,078,730 |
3.17 |
4 |
1.5 |
|
13 |
Philippines |
108,116,620 |
6.73 |
7 |
2.6 |
|
14 |
Egypt, Arab Rep. |
100,388,070 |
2.93 |
3 |
1.1 |
|
15 |
Vietnam |
96,462,110 |
2.73 |
3 |
1.1 |
|
16 |
Congo, Dem. Rep. |
86,790,570 |
1.48 |
1 |
0.4 |
|
17 |
Turkey |
83,429,620 |
4.35 |
4 |
1.5 |
|
18 |
Germany |
83,132,800 |
8.80 |
7 |
2.6 |
|
19 |
Iran, Islamic Rep. |
82,913,910 |
1.96 |
2 |
0.8 |
|
20 |
Thailand |
69,625,580 |
6.67 |
5 |
1.9 |
|
21 |
France |
67,059,890 |
8.07 |
5 |
1.9 |
|
22 |
United Kingdom |
66,834,400 |
8.28 |
6 |
2.3 |
|
23 |
Italy |
60,297,400 |
7.69 |
5 |
1.9 |
|
24 |
South Africa |
58,558,270 |
7.05 |
4 |
1.5 |
|
25 |
Tanzania |
58,005,460 |
5.10 |
3 |
1.1 |
A nation that improves its democracy rating will automatically increase its power. A nation that accepts
more immigrants to increase population will automatically increase its power.
Nations whose citizens leave will get less power, and dictators who take power
from the people will get less power in the UE. The UE will intensely debate the
exact definition of democracy, decide on the measures, and examine in detail
each nation’s progress. Nations can still choose methods to conduct their own
national elections and degrees of press freedom, but
then must document and convince the world how fair their elections are.
Most Canadians live closer to Americans than to their fellow
citizens, but Canadians have no say in American laws that greatly affect their
daily lives. An example was during the recent covid crisis. The virus reached
both countries at about the same time. The border was closed in both directions
in March 2020 and reopened to fully vaccinated travelers a year and a half later
in November 2021. The US covid death rate was already twice as high as in
Canada in April 2020, and the daily death rate and total deaths as percentage
of population remained about twice as high in US as in Canada until November
2021. The US border closure had little benefit and made no more sense than
closing all borders between 50 US states would have. Borders between states
remained open (even for Hawaii), and the US-Canada border should have remained
open.
The U.S. Articles of Confederation in 1777 said in Article XI
that “Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the
united states, shall be admitted into, and entitled to
all the advantages of this union...” Canadians and Americans could have been
fellow citizens already for 250 years. Becoming fellow citizens makes sense now
but is not likely.
Instead, the United States could join the Commonwealth that
Canada, UK, India, Australia, and > 50 other countries already have joined. On
March 16 2024 I suggested to the Commonwealth
governance committee that: “USA could join the Commonwealth on July 4 2026 if the king is no longer in charge of it. Americans
left the Commonwealth on July 4 1776 and could rejoin
after 250 years but will not be ruled by a king. Charles III could step down
from his Commonwealth duties. His son Harry who left
for America would then be back in the Commonwealth.
Edward VIII stepped down from his duties to marry an American. We should all be
one family. Thank you for thinking about this request for a change in
Commonwealth governance.”
United Earth
Many countries could join into a larger democratic union
across the earth (UE). Becoming UE citizens does not require giving up your
national citizenship or your state driver’s license. We can cooperate to create
better government, and everyone can participate in its benefits.
Earth’s taxpayers will support their national governments transferring
more tax to an international government if the UE is many times more effective
than the UN. The global tax rate could be reported separately on your tax
statement to remind you each year how little global tax you pay compared to
local, state, and national taxes. You could have an individual option to
transfer a portion of your federal tax to the UE. Currently the US federal tax
return (form 1040) asks if $3 of my tax should be transferred to the
Presidential Election fund. The Maryland tax return (form 502) asks if I want
to contribute funds for the Chesapeake Bay, Endangered Species, Developmental
Disabilities, Cancer Research, or Fair Campaign Financing. Neither asks if I
want to support effective international government.
European nations could join the UE as separate members or
jointly as the EU. The main difference would be a more representative vote if
they join separately or more central power if together. Direct elections for each
nation’s delegates may be preferred, but some countries might restrict UE
appointments only to members of the ruling party. US Senators and
Representatives are directly elected instead of being appointed by the state’s
governor. Appointing rather than directly electing its UE representatives could
further reduce a nation’s democracy index. The UE needs clear rules governing
how to join and exit the union. The US Civil War may have started partly because
the words “perpetual union” that were in the Articles of Confederation were not
in the Constitution. When joining, nations should understand if they can later
secede from the earth.
Final steps are to write the UE Charter, revise and adopt it,
elect or appoint the government, fund it, and obey it. Main benefits are that
decisions would be enforced, world policing would be done by world police, and
nations would not need to volunteer their troops to fight in faraway places and
pretend it was for national defense. The UE will provide global services and
preserve world order using their own staff hired by global taxes devoted to
maintaining and improving the whole world. National governments will only need
to provide national services, just as state taxes provide state services and
local taxes provide local services.
Reasons to join UE are that joint defense can be stronger and
more efficient than national defense and is why nations such as Sweden and Finland
joined NATO, for example. Recovery from natural disasters will be easier with
global reserve funds than with national, state, or local reserve funds. Travel
could be much easier with global borders than with national borders and is why the US does not restrict its citizens to remain within their state’s borders. We all might get
more job offers to work in other UE member nations, just as citizens of
previous global empires did. We could pay for goods and services using Earthos
as a common currency, just as many people in Europe pay for their goods and
services in Euros since 2000 instead of Deutsch marks, French francs, etc.
Citizens of many other nations on earth may prefer to unite instead of
remaining autonomous, just as most nations in Europe did.
The UN might last for decades or centuries in its current,
broken form or slowly evolve into a useful government. Many national leaders
prefer a weak UN so that they can have more power. People, especially poor
people, should prefer a much stronger international government that would value
their individual vote. Continuing the current UN is easier than designing a
better government, debating its exact rules, and getting nations to join. With
help from France 250 years ago, 13 colonies declared and won their independence
from the British to become the United States. Today, with instant global communication,
people from many countries could declare their dependence and join very quickly
into the United Earth. The earth soon could and should have effective
international government. I will vote for that.
Back to Defending National and
Creating World Democracy
References
Articles of
Confederation - Wikipedia
United
States and the United Nations - Wikipedia
Budget of the
European Union - Wikipedia
AU
proposes $814 million budget for 2026 as push for self-funding intensifies -
Allen Dreyfus
Commonwealth of
Nations - Wikipedia
Countries
that don't or barely have elections
Countries
That Are No Longer Democracies
The
Economist Democracy Index - Wikipedia
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