Rocker Bono: Capitalism Works

FrontPageMag.Com - Speaking at Georgetown University earlier this year, renowned rocker Bono, who has also become well-known for his push for aid to Africa, explained that the only way for the continent to rise from poverty is to embrace capitalism. “So some of Africa is rising and some of Africa is stuck. It’s a question of if the rising bit will pull the rest of Africa up or whether the other Africa will weigh the continent down. Which will it be? The stakes here aren’t just about them. Imagine, for a second, this last global recession, but without the economic growth of China and India, without the hundreds of millions of newly minted middle class folks who now buy American and European goods. Imagine that. Think about the last five years.” He added, “Rock star preaches capitalism.

Wow. Sometimes I hear myself and I just can’t believe it. But commerce is real. That’s what you’re about here. It’s real. Aid is just a stopgap. Commerce, entrepreneur capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid. Of course we know that.” Bono is right. But that isn’t the point. The point is Bono’s throwaway line: “Rock star preaches capitalism. Wow.”

The fact is that capitalism isn’t supposed to be cool. Thanks to the counterculture of the 1960s, the prevailing wisdom remains that socialism is what the cool kids say; capitalism is what their parents do to fund their socialist kids’ hobbies. Rock stars are supposed to be redistributionists. They’re supposed to rage against the machine. John Lennon’s Imagine is supposed to be the anthem: “Imagine no possessions / I wonder if you can / No need for greed or hunger / A brotherhood of man / Imagine all the people / Sharing all the world…”     More   PTG