Commerce is real. … Aid is just a stop-gap. Commerce, entrepreneurial capitalism, takes more people out of poverty than aid, of course we know that.
– Bono
Madsen Pirie concurs.
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Samizdata quote of the dayJuly 24th, 2013 |
 26 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Well done Bono.
Now if he can agree that everyone has the right to evade taxes as U2 does without moral grandstanding, were onto a winner!
Christ! Bono sees the light. Did someone steal his sunglasses?
Holy crap, I would never have expected that…. damn it, I’m going to wake up in a moment :/
There’s a but coming, isn’t there?
It is a good (because true) comment by “Bono”.
“of course we know that.”
Well, no, not all of us do. Therein lies the problem.
Tax payer funded aid was great, then somebody expected bono to pay taxes, now trade I stone way forward .
Free enterprise is cold and harsh and has winners and losers, and is just so mean and ishy.
Collectivism is so warm and inclusive, and no one gets left out in the cold, all by themselves, just because they didn’t want to get up and go to work in the morning, or school, or meet a lot of icky requirements and expectations.
We live in a fool’s paradise, in which poor people complain about the free food and housing they receive, the free schools and medical care they are given, and the ordinary working person who provides all that there is for everyone in society, earned or unearned, is condemned as selfish and uncaring if they would rather have something for their own family instead of having the resource taken from them and given to strangers.
There is a day of reckoning coming for all of us. Just as the monolithic and seemingly irresistible socialist states of the 20th century suddenly collapsed when the ponzi scheme ran out, so too will the delusional beliefs of the western elites meet a harsh reality when they can no longer hide their failures, or find convenient scapegoats to blame for their endless crises.
Insuring that the full light of day exposes them for the moral and intellectual cockroaches they are is the task of those who reject their irrational blather, and demand to live as rational beings in a world that respects the freedom and independence of the individual.
Mene, men, tekal upharsin. We have been weighed in the scales, and found wanting.
Looks outside to see if the sky is falling.
He’s said some good things about President Bush’s policies in Africa too – no? So it’s not totally unexpected/suprising…
If this quote becomes widely-known, expect scathing reviews for the next U2 album. Also, insinuation of possible National-Socialist sympathies and general denunciation.
But good on the bloke for saying it.
Dear Veryretired- the one thing wrong in your analysis is that Communism collapsed because it could be compared with another system- our mixed (-up) economic system. Most other countries are like us. So people will assume that this is as good as it gets.
Bono made a point of praising George W Bush’s plans for helping Africa, at a time when Obama hysteria was at its peak. So while he may get things wrong on occasion, I don’t think he’s a political bigot.
Sam Duncan: nope, Bono’s said good stuff in the past.
Antoine Clarke:
Bono:
(on George Bush’s announcement of increased AIDS funding for Africa)
So, he was hysterically happy that my tax dollars will go to make zero difference to the problem of AIDS in Africa, because it makes him fell all warm and fuzzy inside. I am sorry to disagree, Antoine, but eff him and the horse he rode in on. He may not be a political bigot, but he and people like him are a major part of the biggest problem of our times.
Dear Nick, I used ponzi scheme as a shorthand way to refer to an ongoing con which crashes when the money runs out, or the participants catch on to the scam. In the case of the unlamented ussr and Mao’s China et al, it was a combination of both.
JP2 blew off their moral pretensions, and the increased knowledge of the western lifestyle exposed their utter failure to do anything they had promised to accomplish.
It was a little blog comment, not a thesis.
Plamus, it’s easy to be compassionate, liberal or conservative, when you can do it with someone else’s money.
I am seeking other good Bono quotes, but I stll haven’t found what I’m looking for.
I dunno – me, I’m always happy to take ‘yes’ for an answer.
Bono has seen the light. Well good. The irony of course is that many big rock stars are serious businessmen – they have to be.
In my opinion – and I could be wrong, of course – this is something to be encouraged, not sneered at. Some of us were not necessarily born ideologically pure libertarians, having “seen the light” later – some times very late – in life. The person in question being a famous entertainer has no bearing on this – although that does place them in a position of power to draw attention to whatever views they hold on whatever subject. The latter fact is something for us to take advantage of when possible, not to shy away from or deride.
None of which is to say that one utterance from Bono makes him some kind of a “convert” – that remains to be seen, as Mr. Ed so aptly hinted. Also, U2 is grossly overrated, although definitely listenable.
Sorry Alisa, but celebrity supporters regularly jump through hoops to protect their own earnings from tax, whilst advocating government spending (often FOREIGN government spending) on their pet projects including idiotic things like the Robin Hood Tax in Europe (a form of Tobin tax).
Such support by various celebrities has provided governments with propaganda, headlines and the appearance of popular support for little more than legalised theft.
While I applaud Bono’s realisation, it is hardly a “Road to Damascus” conversion. This is just one credit set against the balance sheet of his collectivist idiocy.
Taxing questions for Bono and U2
http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord/2011/06/07/taxing-questions-for-bono-and-u2/
“I am seeking other good Bono quotes, but I stll haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
Did you look where the streets have no name?
Sorry JG, but as much as I’d love to join the anti-Bono lynch mob, that link is from 2011 – plus, you seem to have missed the next to last sentence in my comment. So I stand by my general position, which is to take ‘yes’ for an answer, even if it is a late and an incomplete one. Others of course are free to withdraw their approval of Bono’s statements pending him becoming a Mises:-)
BTW JG, I just looked back at your first comment there, about the moral grandstanding. I’d be the first to admit that Bono is as big on that as any of the big-time musicians/actors etc. But at least going by your link, his moral grandstanding does not include anything about taxes per se. Rather, like many well-meaning people (celebrities as well as regular folks), his seems to be a case of a severe mental disconnect between taxes and government spending. Stupid and misguided, definitely. Hypocritical? Not so sure.
@ PeterT. Probably, I shall press on, with or without you.
People have been saying “Trade, not aid” for years. Is Bono just now catching on?