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Comment by sprout | Hacker News Reader

Wow, that's a load of non-sequiturs. Monopoly is a side effect of the massive corruption plaguing Mexico. Microsoft doesn't even come close.

As for aid in Africa, that's a specific charity you worked with in Africa. There are people who do good work there. Dismissing aid because people are bad at it is like dismissing software development because people are bad at it. One way or another it's necessary.

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I went to a missionary conference once where an African princess came in and talked to us. Exactly the place where you'd expect a plea for more aid, right?

Well, not really. She said we needed to mind our own business and let Africa take care of itself.

Then a Bono video from his opulent mansion came on with some sort of campaign to end world poverty or something.

"Minding your own business" may be a loaded phrase there, though. Much of the misery in Africa is a direct result of western exploitation. That includes much misery the proximate cause of which is corrupt leaders. Guess who keeps many of them there.

She has a point that truly letting Africa "take care of itself" may be more effective than any aid. But that statement is not primarily about aid, and withdrawing aid doesn't help with the subjacent problems.

"Monopoly is a side effect of the massive corruption plaguing Mexico" Hold it. Please don`t make broad accusations. If you have any specific information about Telmex say so, but do not generalize. That badly hurts our reputation and it has been said many times that people just take it as true. Mexico has corruption levels that are consistent with outher countries with similar development levels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

Americans operate under the delusion that our government is not corrupt. They see corrupt actions as legitimate. For instance, governments here regularly steal property from private citizens without having the citizens be charged with a crime (let alone convicted.)

Just to round it out...

There is also the logical fallacy known as "Appeal to Authority" in @maxawaytoolong's comment.

But we should not be logic nazis I suppose.

My own opinion is that both Slim and Gates can be right at the same time. Lots of businesses provide for lots of people...but not all.

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