This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, May 6, 2008. I'm Caleb Brown.

When celebrities get together to give back their answer to poverty in the world so often misses a key point.

Cato Institute's founder and president Ed Crane found himself watching American Idol

Idol gives back.

He suggests that celebrities take a good look at how to help the poor of the world

create their own wealth.

My daughters make me watch American Idol when it's on and a few weeks ago they had what they call their

idle gives back a fundraiser and they bring dozens of celebrities and politicians in to help raise money for the world's poor

particularly Africa. So you had celebrities on this show over two nights like Billy Crystal, Robin

Williams, Kiefer Sutherland, Bono, Brad Pitts, Snoop Dogg, athletes like

Payton Manning and of course the politicians like Hillary

Clinton and John McCain and Barack Obama.

And they all make a pitch to give money and there'll be clips of children suffering and blind

people begging and it just tugs at your heart it's very compelling stuff. The

problem is that what they should be focusing on is the not not the cause of poverty because poverty is a natural state of man, but what allows people

to get out of poverty, what creates wealth.

They raise $65 million from generous and caring Americans, and that's a good thing.

But you know, there are 2.5 billion people living in abject poverty, living on less than $2 a day.

And so the money just is a drop in the bucket.

It doesn't have any impact.

And to me, the frustrating thing about Idle gives back is you've got all

this attention because of these celebrities and not one of them addresses how wealth is created.

...