Bono and his band of bandits: Ilana Mercer whacks U2 frontman for foreign-aid rip-off

The latest victory our democratic institutions can boast, the latest lien we've apparently authorized against our paychecks, is a commitment to more foreign aid.

American voters have allegedly delegated to president and Congress the right to allow bureaucrats and administrators abroad to take a shot at their wallets. The democratic license extends to faceless bandits at the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank; you name it, they all can take a stab at your pay stub.

Since the beneficiaries of foreign aid reside in Washington, Geneva, Brussels and assorted mansions dotting Third World landscapes, it takes a great deal of cash to maintain them in style. Which is why, worldwide, the U.N. is seeking approximately $166 billion annually in foreign aid.

It doesn't take much skill to loot the voter. Cued by our democratically-elected representatives, Bono, a chap who fronts a three-chord band of unimpressive droners has now joined The Mob in clamoring for your cash.

Like our elected representatives, U2's Bono doesn’t care that forced transfer of money is always theft. To the wealthy Bono, the fact that more than half of U.S. voters support the theft is enough to render the robbery permissible.

My dear friend, economist Walter Block, offers a particularly animated illustration of the democratic principle at work. Here it is, moderately adapted for my purposes:

"Suppose two hoodlums break into my apartment and are in the process of walking off with my TV. When I object that they are stealing, they agree to hold a referendum on the issue."

Bono, the philosophical bandit, says, "How many object to taking Ilana's TV?" I raise my hand. Bono then asks, "How many favor this action?" Bono and his accomplice, World Bank President Jim Wolfenson, outvote me.

Bono, who's oblivious to the immorality of democratically-approved distribution, thinks you won't even feel the pinch. So what if the average American family now pays government more than it spends on housing, food and medical care. So what if you work for government until roughly May 18 of every year. Big deal: What's another hour or so of bondage?

If "for the children" used to be your cue to head for the hills, now, hold on to your wallet when politicians pronounce that a new spending scheme is part of a terrorism-fighting strategy. Having capitulated to the yammer about poverty being a cause of terrorism, President Bush is aiming to make foreign aid part of an official anti-terrorism strategy. This fatuity promises to end for good the debate on the corrupting effects of foreign welfare, because anything that ostensibly fights terrorism is sacrosanct.

With your kindness and your moolah Bush thinks he will call off the Islamist mullahs!

Foreign aid, however, will occasion no such epiphany in murderous hearts because at the heart of Islamist terrorism is a violent and brutal belief system. Its vision is of an Islamic Renaissance through conquest. What the president's Pocahontas worldview will achieve is to re-victimize the victims of Islamic aggression.

The ethical arguments against foreign aid notwithstanding, foreign aid, like any welfare entitlement, cripples the recipient by putting in place incentives that reinforce sloth and corruption. Third World nations are poor because they have failed to adopt the institutions of capitalism. Their governments are growing by the day, many industries remain nationalized, taxes are prohibitive, regulations are rampant and price controls a cause of endemic shortages.

Private property rights, the cornerstone of prosperity and justice, are, at best, precarious in Third World countries:

It took economist Henando de Soto and his team roughly 289 days, "as well as $1,231 in payment fees, to legally open a small garment shop in Peru, an objective that took a single morning in the U.S." Similar conditions obtain in other Third World countries into whose corrupt coffers Bono, Bush et al. will plow your funds.

Foreign aid infrastructure, moreover, is directly responsible for growing the political class in these countries at the expense of the productive private sector. As the size of government increases, the growth of real GDP decreases. Indeed, to the World Bank is owed the dubious distinction of propping up despotic governments and undermining free market reforms in the Third World.

Bush has gone from preaching "trade not aid," and being charmingly unaware of celebrity, to instituting trade tariffs, and giving Bono a pledge to increase U.S. foreign aid by 50 percent over three years.

It is also why an unknown sage once said, "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal."

I totally agree with the sentiments expressed by Mercer, but she's trying to explain things to people who have a complete misunderstanding of the problem. The problem with liberal dunces like Bono is that like many leftists they think capitalism and free markets cause third-world poverty. So relieving these dungheaps of their debts is only justice being done in the minds of these economically illiterate commies.

P.S.And if you want to listen to good Irish bands, listen to Altan or Dervish not mediocre rockers like U2.

The problem with liberal dunces like Bono is that like many leftists they think capitalism and free markets cause third-world poverty...

Here's something even weirder: I was talking to a prof whose views are nothing short of full-fledged communism, and eventually got him to admit that poverty is only defined by the presence of wealth. Thus, people living with no electricity and little spendable income weren't poor 200 years ago, they were simply living how most people lived. Only with the advent of electricity does the lack of electricity become "poverty." Only when wealthy people are visible does a way of life that was acceptable until then become unacceptable. In other words, the entire mindset is motivated by envy and a sense of entitlement. I asked him, "So if your neighbors think you are making too much money, you are. And they should be entitled to take it from you?" And he sort of stammered and then looked at his watch...

Bono, a chap who fronts a three-chord band of unimpressive droners

Are we supposed to trust the author of this piece to have rational insights after making this damn-fool statement? No wonder she writes for the internet equivalent of "The World Weekly News". Maybe she is Ed Anger in drag?

The problem with liberal dunces like Bono is that like many leftists they think capitalism and free markets cause third-world poverty.

He's Irish. What else do you expect him to believe in other than leftism? Hell,the Irish national heroes are the Marxist punks in the IRA.

So true. By today's standards my family in the fifties would have been "poverty-stricken". Except that while we were poor, we weren't poverty-stricken. We ate three squares every day and didn't walk around naked. We also had a roof over our heads (a "basement" house), and my dad had a car. But by today's standards we would be thought of as unfortunate. But while we lacked a lot of money, we were very fortunate.

And what is your point???

I hope you are sitting down when I break this shocking news to you,but he is a VERY popular AND successful musician. When the author tries to dismiss him so lightly,it only proves the ignorance of the author.

Bono is a nono, just another small time prick with a big self-estimation.

Really? How many million-selling albums have YOU made? Is your expertise in your chosen field instantly recogonized world-wide? How many people can YOU influence with just a few words?

Well, U2 did have that lyric "all I have is a red guitar, three chords and the truth," so really, the remark suggests she knows more about them than you think. So she doesn't like their music, this doesn't negate her ability to see what Bono is up to.

So she doesn't like their music, this doesn't negate her ability to see what Bono is up to.

I agree. But when she tries to confuse his musical abilities with his politics is where she goes wrong.The equivalent is when people here on FR dump on Robin Williams and say he has no talent,simply because he is a political idiot. You only look stupid when you do something like that.

Besides,think about this for a minute,ok? Bono is Irish and grew up in a country where many people see the Marxist organization known of as the IRA as their ideal. Add to that being a multi-millionaire rock star,and what else COULD he be but a idiot? Are people surprised when a snake slithers,or a dog barks?

I agree. But when she tries to confuse his musical abilities with his politics is where she goes wrong.

This is a subjective matter and talent is relative. She called them "unimpressive droners" and depending on one's taste in music, that could be just what they are. The fact is, Bono can't play guitar worth squat and he'll be the first to say so. So he sings, and as to whether he's actually on key or not, well, that's pretty hit and miss too. Put him up against a trained opera singer and he sounds like a banshee. Compare their music to the kind of thing a good blues artist of the 40s could create using just his fingers and a guitar, without all the flashing lights and pounding drums. Compare their fragmented, emotional lyrics to a reasoned argument against fragmented emotionalism. Just because he appeals to a large number of people is no real judge of value. "Survivor" appeals to large numbers of people. So does Britanny Spears, for pete's sake.

What the writer doesn't seem to understand is that Bono and his ilk CARE so much more than us little people.
It's the politics of guilt. I'm sorry but I stop feeling guilty about living in a rich country a long time ago.

I first noticed Bono's half-witted political acts when he joined in the chorus for the Martin Luther King holiday. Arizona was the target of his political quest.

Bono refused to acknowledge the racist nature of the movement and could not explain why we should have a holiday dedicated to the memory of one person.

Bono should mind his own business and learn the fallacies of his timid education.

I agree with Bono.

This morning, my daughter's pet rabbit got it's floppy ear caught in the door.

What did YOU PEOPLE do to help out--HUH?!!! Nothing.

"This morning, my daughter's pet rabbit got it's floppy ear caught in the door."

Oh yeah? This sounds like negligence.

Forget the abuse button, I'm calling PETA!

Exactly...a hundred years from now all of us here will seem poverty stricken too since we don't have now whatever innovations develop in the coming years. Many of us have now things, opportunities and capabilities even the very wealthiest didn't a hundred years ago.

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