A rock star who preaches capitalism. “Wow; sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it,” Bono told students at Georgetown University.

Bono: We Need Capitalism to End Poverty

By Greg Pollowitz, published by the National Review on July 22, 2013

“Capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid.”

In a recent speech at Georgetown University’s Global Social Enterprise Event, Bono admitted that even he himself finds it hard to accept that he has become a rock star who preaches capitalism.

“Wow; sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it,” he said.

Bono is well known for leading charitable organizations and initiatives that are fighting poverty and disease in Africa. He also may or may not be the world’s wealthiest musician as a result of his investment in the Facebook IPO.

At the Georgetown speech, Bono made the following statements:

“Aid is just a stop-gap. Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid.

“In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is a cure.

“Entrepreneurship is the most sure way of development.”

Read the original version of this news item here at the publisher’s website

Further Reading

Despite the best of famous intentions
Bono: ‘Paul Martin, I’m calling you!’
Breaking the myth of aid. Dambisa Moyo’s remedies
Bill Gates: Foreign Aid 2.0
Africa’s ‘dead aid’
Aiding is Abetting
The corrosive legacy of Live Aid
Haiti: ‘The Republic of NGOs’