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Gene Simmons a die-hard capitalist, shares his anti-entitlement views

By April MacIntyre Nov 13, 2011, 19:18 GMT

08/14/2011 - Gene Simmons - 2011 VH1 Do Something Awards - Arrivals - Palladium Hollywood - Hollywood, CA, USA © David Gabber / PR Photos

There is no doubt the the band KISS and Gene Simmons have long been known to capitalize on their brand, and turn it into a remarkable retirement machine for the band members who rock, hawk and roll huge profits from their fanbase.

And why not? It's their business, and the notion that the band as a commodity versus "art" is just fine with the most famous of all the players, Gene Simmons.

Simmons turned his personal life into a docuseries that saw his recent marriage to the mother of his children after 28 long tumultuous years of alleged groupie dalliances, perhaps inflated in numbers to keep up the AARP eligible rocker's manly rocker image.

Simmons is all-American in his approach to making money, well-diversified in many businesses not even related to music, and he shared his ethos with The Sun (UK) in an op/ed that shines a light on his obviously conservative financial views that eschew entitlement programs.

thesun.com

Gene was speaking to the London Business School students how to build a billion-dollar brand and The Sun transcribed his speech:

"The thing I would do if I was the benevolent dictator of planet Earth would be to fire all politicians — who are basically university lecturers in positions of power.

They might be able to quote the existential philosophers but that doesn't mean they know how to run businesses.

Countries are businesses — they have imports and exports and you want your exports to be higher than your imports so you can have a profit.

You want to make sure that whatever money you give out to your population is money that you can afford to send out.

Countries are a house of cards — and when the bottom few cards fall down they all topple over. Look at Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

If businessmen ran the country, this wouldn't happen. Richard Branson would make a great PM. He's more qualified.

Government makes money by taxing and spending.

It's so simple. If you spend more than you tax, you're out of business. MPs don't know what they're talking about.

And we created this miserable economic state. It's like fat people who think it's the bakery's fault they got fat.

No, you kept going in there and you kept eating cake. It's not the bakery's responsibility to tell you to slow down.

Banks shouldn't have to tell you not to borrow so much.

They're banks — they're supposed to lend you money. If you can't afford to take out £100,000, don't take out a £400,000 mortgage.

It's your responsibility to be a grown-up and take care of yourself.

Thank God we have lending institutions and banks. The planes that fly through the sky, the phones we use every day, the cars we drive, the houses we live in, the entire economy is all funded by firms who borrow in return for interest.

This mess is our fault — corporations have no responsibility.

Capitalism is the best thing that ever happened to human beings. The welfare state sounds wonderful but it doesn't work.

Governments hand out more money than they have to support welfare and they land in debt.

Then they have to borrow money — and then there's interest on top of that.

That's bad business. And it has created a culture of entitlement.

When I was growing up my mother went to work. There was no welfare. If you worked, you made money.

If you didn't work, you had to figure it out — you'd go and wash dishes.

The new breed of 20-year-olds don't want to do those jobs.

So people from other countries come over and are thrilled to get the chance to wipe the floors.

Kiss are the only business-savvy band about and I make no apologies for that.

We sell everything from condoms to caskets — we'll get you coming and we'll get you going.

We outsell The Beatles and Elvis put together.

People say things like: "Oh, you make so much money. What do you need any more for?"

Well, actually, b*tch, I never asked for your opinion. I'll let you know when I have enough money.