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The Live 8 concerts charge no admission. Why not? They should be able to gather a lot of money to pay for the things they allegedly support.

However, they charge nothing. They even have signs up saying "We don't want your money, we want your support". Think about that statement! What they are saying is: "If you want poor people to get money, join us! Instead of having to give your own money towards a cause you support, we will employ governments to force others to share the load!" (through taxations, of course). Does no one else find that sinister?

But the people still donate and just because they don't charge admission doesnt make them evil...

Most of them haven't given a dime; they don't even ask for money.

And using force against innocent people to achieve your goals is evil.

The reason why they don't want our charity is because throwing money at a cause does not automatically get results. Most money that goes to African governments gets absorbed by corrupt officials and placed in Swiss bank accounts.

They would prefer to have people's support for a long time rather than have them donate and then forget all about it. There are more complicated things to think about here, but I'm in no mood for protracted discussion.

They'd have to charge a immense cover for the show, thereby killing half the attendance. You gotta consider costs. They probably wouldn't come close to breaking even.

Giving people money doesn't actually help all that much. Which is why they have a touch more than that to their plan, stuff geared towards helping Africa help itself.

BTW, if you don't wanna contribute and this passes, just don't pay taxes. That's all it takes!

Look, if you just give the African people (individually) money, what happens? They'll use it up for food, clothing, and shelter, and be moneyless after a while. The problem is that they need jobs to make a living off of. Therefore, the money should go towards developing industries for the African people to work in. That's why we need to "help Africa help itself" as des puts it.

If you give them clothing, like some charities used to do, you kill of their textile industry, because then, nobody would buy the clothing from their factories because they can get them for free. Therefore, people don't get jobs, and even more people starves.

You guys aren't even making sense. Covering costs? How are they covering costs charging ZERO admission?

If you insist that the only people able to distribute money to Africa are government beaurocrats, why not collect money and put it in a fund for them to give out, instead of holding a gun to the taxpayers and saying, "Some hippies want you to give us money. Pay up."?

the performers probly pay for everything?

What has that got to do with anything? I don't know if they pay for the sets, they may just lend their time, but even if they did pay for the stages, equipment, etc. what's your point?

You are so IMMATURE. People die and starve every single day in Africa. People of the world have tried donating money, but often this charity goes into the wrong hands. Finally bands that ALOT of people listen to are coming together and trying to get the world's attention back on Africa through a Concert. I don't know where you have been lately, probably no where but your computer, but bands have more power over their listeners then you think. Plus, this is all for a really good cause, so shut up and stop calling it evil.

I am not saying that it's bad donating money. I am also not saying that it's bad being careful that the money is given to the right organization. I am saying that gathering that money by the use of force is bad.

Stealing is bad, I don't care what cause you have. It is evil to steal other's money because you think you can spend it better than they can.

edit: clarity

They didn't force people to do anything. They encouraged people to come for months before the concert actaully began. People showed up on thier free will to help other people. It is not like me going over to your house, stealing your money that you would have used to buy star craft 2 and give it to some homeless guy. Its you giving me that money, KNOWING, what IM going to do with it.

No, you are misunderstanding the point of the concerts, an honest mistake.

They are trying to get governments around the world to use taxes to pay for this. As I said, they have signs up saying that they don't want to audience's money (even though most of the audience probably pays taxes...).

They still aren't forcing any one to do anything. They want the governments to do something, but aren't forcing them to do anything.

Come on... of course they can't force people to give them money, but they know that the government can. So, instead of paying out of their own pockets, they go to the government to try and get them to force everyeone else to pay.

Um, yeah, how is the Live 8 concert FORCING one to donate? From what I can tell, the concert is simply to point the population's focus to africa and the starving and stuff there. I bet that alot of those people won't donate a dime to charity, but the bands know that by doing this they are helping out Africa a hell of a lot more than just giving them money. I don't see why this is evil, it's for a good cause.

EDIT: Hmmm, posted too late...

How the hell is the government forcing us to pay? I mean, we pay taxes, sure. But is there going to be a raise in taxes or something to help out Africa? I don't quite get that...

See my above post.

I'd say live 8 is ok.. because the government did say that they would give a bit more money to africa-but this currently has not happened yet- maybe this can be some kind of role reversal- the concert is asking for the tax and the goverment are the ppl

They're basically doing what hippies, Jesus, and any other huge figure in history have tried to do. Influence people to do good and to stand up for what is right. (though you can argue that some hippies used force - also, I'm talking about true hippies, not the drug using stereotype)

It is one thing to try and do what's right; it's another thing to try and do what's right with someone else's money.

You're basically going against almost every religon out there. Its not about money or currency, LIVE8 cares about fairness. Everyone deserves to be equal. They don't charge because a lot of their supporters are probably also poor, and wouldn't LIVE8 love to be part of the cause they're fighting?

Charging money for the concerts wouldn't hurt the attendence that much. I'm fairly close to one of the host sites (Barrie, or as they called it in the presentation, "Toronto"). I saw what happened here, and it MAY have happened in other sites as well. On the first day, tickets were given out and were completely gone in 15 minutes. They were expecting 35000 people, but only 20000 people came. It wasn't a poor turnout, the problem was that certain people bought hundreds of tickets, and sold them for cash when the concert was sold out. Because of this, it basically cost money to get into the concert. The turnout was basically the same then as if they charged money from the source. The best thing to do would be for them to either limit 1 ticket per customer and/or charge money from the source.

Do they allow you to pre-order the tickets? because then they should just distribute them 5 minutes prior to the concert itself. That way not many people could sell them.

Who gave you the right to steal my money and spend it on other people? Who the f*ck do you think you are!?

Err, by 'you' I think you're speaking of the government, and the answer to that, is the Constitution of the United States of America, unless taxes began with a different doccument. Well, I have no idea which state you live in, so I'll use New York as an example, because you know atleast 2 cities in there.

Imagine in Albany, New York, there's some kind of large pipe broken. Now imagine you live in New York, NY The government of New York is forced to fix that, how do they pay for it? Your taxes. Didn't your money just help some other people?