Pop star Bono on realizing that simply handing out money can be counterproductive, through this interview the New York Times (via Tyler Cowen and via Tim Worstall,)

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. I spend a lot of time in countries all over Africa, and they’re like, Eh, we wouldn’t mind a little more globalization actually.

Even pop stars are grasping now that redistributing wealth doesn’t work—in fighting poverty and wealth disparity. If we truly wish to establish equality, we must democratizing opportunities and allow the market to distribute wealth—as it eventually will meaningfully.