Mark Steyn puts together his thoughts on the Live 8 event and like many others reaches the inescapable conclusion that capitalism is a far better cure for Africa's ills than following the advice given to us by aging rockstars: force the taxpayer to pick up the tab. Even in Canada such a message is falling on deaf ears.

When it comes to rockstar driven fundraising my fondest memories go back to 1992 when some of rock's finest performed in Wembley for the Freddy Mercury Concert for Aids Awareness. The cause, but especially the emotion following shortly after Freddy's death brought out some superb performances and raised a huge chunk of change for AIDS research. But even here, market forces are most likely to provide the fastest route to a cure, here's Sullivan on the benefits of profit driven pharmaceutical companies:

" ... the "evil" pharmaceutical companies are, in fact, among the most beneficent organizations in the history of mankind and their research in the last couple of decades will one day be recognized as the revolution it truly is. Yes, they're motivated by profits. Duh. That's the genius of capitalism - to harness human improvement to the always-reliable yoke of human greed. Long may those companies prosper. I owe them literally my life"

Raising public awareness is great, but let the market figure out the best way to pay for it.

UPDATE: Some revealing comments from a Kenyan economist here.