southchild

In Righteousness comes cheap Jonathan Tobin elaborates on how the goals of the Live 8 concerts — forgiveness of debt and the pouring in of money to Africa — will not, in fact, eliminate poverty on the continent. But, results don’t matter when you measure success by how warm and fuzzy you feel. Tobin concludes:

Ending poverty is an outcome we should all desire. But you would think the 20th-century provided enough examples to show us the utter futility of central economic planning. But in the world of Live 8, maudlin sentimentality trumps history and the laws of economics every time.

So have a good time at the concert, and feel as good about yourself as you like.

But this Fourth of July, rather than excoriating America, the poor of the world and their sympathizers should look to it for an example of how freedom and prosperity are ultimately indivisible.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 30th, 2005 at 9:46 pm and is filed under General, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.