During a nearly two week tour of Africa in May of 2002 by Bono (real name Paul David Hewson, the lead singer of the rock band U2) and then U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Bono made a crack about the secretary saying he is, “the man in charge of America’s wallet…and I want to open that wallet.”
In other words the singing Irishman was saying the American taxpayers should be compelled to shovel even more of their hard earned money across the Atlantic ocean into the coffers of corrupt African government officials so the funds can be used to make the ruling elite even wealthier while the citizens of these countries continue to live in squalor. In fact Bono is famous for badgering governments, especially the U.S., into using their citizens’ tax dollars to fund ‘poor’ (read African) nations’ social programs and for all ‘wealthy’ governments to simply swallow hard and eat all the debt owed to them by these so called Third World countries.
(Before going any further here take about three minutes and read through this interesting piece.)
For those who didn’t know, back in 2006 Bono, along with the other members of his band who’s combined worth then was estimated to be somewhere north of 700 million dollars, decided to move a nice chunk of their business enterprise out of Ireland to the Netherlands for the sole purpose of saving a bundle on taxes.
The rock band U2 came under criticism yesterday after reports that it has moved a portion of its multi-million-pound business empire out of Ireland for tax reasons.
The band, fronted by Bono, the anti-poverty campaigner, has reportedly transferred some of its publishing company to Holland.
Based in Dublin, U2 have long benefited from the artists’ tax exemption introduced by Charles Haughey, the late prime minister. It is reported that the band’s move has been made in response to a £170,000 cap on the tax-free incomes introduced in the last Irish budget.
Joan Burton, Irish Labour’s finance spokesman, said: “Having listened to Bono on the necessity for the Irish Government to give more money to Ireland Aid, of which I approve, I am surprised that U2 are not prepared to contribute to the Exchequer on a fair basis along with the bulk of Irish taxpayers.
The rest of this article is here>>>
So Bono and U2 think everybody else should be obligated to cough up their hard earned money via higher taxes to fund any number of sure-to-fail social experiments, mainly in Africa, but they do whatever is necessary to protect as much of their earnings from the taxman as they possibly can? Hmmmm.
“It’s actually, I think, more honest to say we’re rock stars, we’re havin’ it large, we’re havin’ a great time and don’t focus on charity too much—that’s private; justice is public,” Bono told the Dublin-based Sunday Independent newspaper in June 2005.
Havin’ it large indeed. Bono and his wife own three homes, including a house near Nice in the south of France, a duplex apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park, and a gated estate in Killiney Ireland with a fabulous view of the Irish Sea. As a matter of fact, in the spirit of environmental consciousness of course, Bono and his wife added a three story extension to the house in Killiney about seven year ago and are in the process of adding even more living area to the 19th century mansion. I’m sure that bumped up their carbon footprint quite a few shoe sizes eh?
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