Mitch’s earlier post of economist William Easterly’s Slate column made me think of one celebrity musician who gets it. I’ve earlier put U2 frontman Bono’s recent comments on entrepreneurship up with sentiments expressed by Milton Friedman and Gary Becker.

I’m using Mitch’s post as an excuse to quote Bono again, post a link to speech highlights, and a link to the entire event (which took place November 12, 2012, at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business during Global Entrepreneurship Week).

Bono said:

“Aid is just a stop-gap. Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism takes more people out of poverty than aid. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse.”

“In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is a cure.”

“Entrepreneurship is the most sure way of development.”

Bono is also quoted in Forbes from a speech in Dublin the previous month:

“Job creators and innovators are just the key, and aid is just a bridge. … We see it as startup money, investment in new countries. A humbling thing was to learn the role of commerce.”