Bono: Capitalism is the 'off ramp' out of extreme poverty

BASEDPolitics' Hannah Cox writes, Bono's "charitable work and activism has led to tens of billions in AIDS relief for African countries and the cancellation of debt for some of the world’s poorest nations. Given some of this work, along with his status as a member of Hollywood royalty, many might assume Bono holds left-of-center views like many of his peers. (And by left of center I mean, anti-free market, pro-big-government opinions.)

Yet Bono recently sat down for an interview with The New York Times to promote his forth-coming book, 'Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.' And in the interview, he dropped some pro-capitalism bombs that may surprise the casual observer.

In the conversation, the interviewer posed the question, 'Maybe this is too much of straw-man argument, but it’s easy to imagine a young activist looking through the book and seeing praise for George W. Bush and Bill Clinton—not exactly beloved figures these days—and thinking you’re out of touch. Or reading a sentence like ‘Why is there hunger in a world of surplus?’ and wondering whether you ever asked that question to all the billionaires you write about glowingly. So do you give credence to shifting ideas about activism and change in the same way that you give credence to shifting ideas about the pop world?'

To which Bono responded, 'I ended up as an activist in a very different place from where I started. I thought that if we just redistributed resources, then we could solve every problem. I now know that’s not true.'

'There’s a funny moment when you realize that as an activist: The off-ramp out of extreme poverty is, ugh, commerce, it’s entrepreneurial capitalism,” Bono said."

Read the entire column.