World Health Org. Refuses To Cure Diseases In Third World!!!

[The One and Only...]

I'm sure you all remember my abhorrancy of the WHO. Remember the article I posted talking about the WHO's questionable methods of analysis and blind fervor attacking a free-market in health care? Maybe, maybe not.

In any case, I will explain why I hate the WHO with a passion that goes far beyond their opinion on the market.

The WHO claims that "six diseases - malaria, tuberculosis, and so on - together account for 90 percent of all deaths from infectious diseases among people under 44. Every year 11 million people die unnecessarily of these diseases." Now, I'm going to assume that is credible. They futher claim that "it would cost between $4 million and $220 million to prevent these deaths." Again, I'll assume they are correct. That's pocket change in terms of politics, so it would obviously be well worth the effort.

Of course, the WHO itself takes in $1 billion annually from the taxpayers. So why is it not devoting its resources to saving these lives? I don't know. Apparently, solving these lives is not nearly as important as "exclusive conferences and... campaigning for the use of seatbelts and against smoking."

Sound somewhat hypocritical? It should. Because for all the moaning in the WHO about the plight of the poor in the developing nations in the world, they will not even devote between 0.4 and 22% of their budget to helping them.

This is why I hate government.

(All quotes taken from In Defence of Global Capitalism; an excellent read, BTW.)