Anne Bradley wrote an article for The Daily Economy titled Bono’s Hard-Won Lesson About Poverty (11 September 2026).
« After almost three decades of poverty activism, Bono had a realization. At his now-famous speech at Georgetown University in 2012, he told a packed crowd: “Commerce is real. Foreign aid is just a stopgap. Commerce and entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than foreign aid; of course, we know that. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse.” »
« The problem with the poverty industry is that it has been a rent-seeking cartel focused on creating high-paying jobs for PhDs from elite universities rather than helping the poor permanently escape poverty. »
« Compassion paired with technocracy is not what the poor need; in fact, this leads to long-term dependency, a hollowing out of human dignity and agency, and a bevy of pernicious unintended consequences. The poverty industry robs the poor and transfers resources to NGOs, which are often government-subsidized bureaucracies. »
« We can end material poverty, but that requires robust institutions of economic freedom, including the rule of law, the protection of private property rights, independent courts, and, as Deirdre McCloskey argues, the freedom to give it a go. Entrepreneurial capitalism is about profit and loss…The butcher only makes a profit if he serves his customers well, and this works best when butchers compete with one another to serve the community. The threat of loss disciplines the entrepreneur, and the lure of profit motivates him to look beyond his own interests, consider the needs of strangers, and serve them well. »
« The motive to obtain a profit is the engine of prosperity, but this cannot be engineered by elites. Rather, it is a bottom-up process of commerce and service. Bono gets it now, but it’s not an easy lesson. »
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