Protest footage in NY, SHOCKING!

[Mr Khan]

HappySqurriel said:

Mr Khan said:

Now lumping them all together is entirely unfair. I've worked in the NGO community, and many of them work for special interests that are truly worthy, and not just criminal activity like lobbying to get the marcellus shale companies to operate without taxes or oversight. NGOs espeically are usually there for good reasons, unless you're the organization for "Clean Coal"

I'm not making a statement about all non-governmental organizations ...

I'm making the statement that there is a rapidly growing population of intelligent, "educated" and hard-working individuals who have no practical skills and engage in rent-seeking behaviours to provide them with the lifestyle they believe that they deserve. It doesn’t matter whether we’re speaking about people who formed NGOs that provide no benefit to anyone, or speculators who artificially manipulate the market for their own gain, the fact that these individuals are not providing value while are draining substantial resources from the economy is a significant problem.

While I have an undying hatred for many forms of speculators (in particular corporations who engage in high-frequency trading) there is at least a balancing point to their behaviour in that they’re taking on a personal risk. Many NGOs (on the other hand) try to manipulate the government to (through taxation) force me to pay for their activities which I may be entirely opposed to; and often it works out that they’re taking my money (through taxation) to pay for their lobbying efforts to convince the government to give them more of my money.

I want to be clear that when I'm talking about NGOs I'm not talking about charities which have to convince average people (or other donors)  to give them money because they believe in the cause.

Fair enough. Being in a combative mood i misread the tone of your post, though i ultimately agree with your assessment, though these people have existed for all time (a sort of high-class brand of beggar, hangers on to the Royal Court in ages past, providing no policy input but leeching off the court's glory), just that as with many careers that were once reserved to the super-elite, it's easier to become such a hanger-on nowadays