February 4, 2015

Why Do People Fear the Koch Brothers so Much?

Nick Sorrentino

2/4/2015 12:01:00 AM

 

So the Koch’s are going to spend a billion (on think tanks, etc) in the next election. You know what? I don’t care.
Why Nick? You’re against crony capitalism. Super rich guys spending money on elections doesn’t concern you?
On one level it does. One should always keep a close eye on anyone throwing money around in the political sphere. If the Kochs ever try to buy a law for their benefit, if they ever posture for a crony handout paid for by the taxpayers we will be the first to highlight them.
But it’s not like the Kochs are trying to get the state to work on their behalf. They aren’t trying to leverage the power of the government for their ends.They aren’t like Tom Styer for instance, the biggest political giver of the last cycle who wants specific legislation enacted which will benefit his bottom line in addition his political aims. The Kochs simply want a smaller state and that in my book is a very admirable thing.
Of course that’s what scares many of the statists. They WANT everything regulated. They believe that a heavily controlled state, a state built for adult children, is the ideal. They don’t want a free society. They don’t want a less intrusive state. They want to be babysat. And that’s why the big government crony capitalists like Styer, Soros, Slim, and Buffett get a free pass from the same people who attack the Kochs.
Think about it. If the Kochs really were just greedy bastards looking to pad their bottom line even more, they wouldn’t be fighting for smaller government. They, like the cronies above would be advocating a LARGER state. And like the cronies above the Kochs would have been celebrated for it.
The easier socially, and often more profitable route for super rich guys is to embrace government and then to buy it. Yet the Kochs have gone a different route, perhaps a less profitable route. That is interesting to me. It certainly seems more honorable than the stuff Soros pulls.

(From The Sun Journal)
The left always wants to paint the Koch brothers as self-interested, to better fit the stereotype of the robber baron distorting government for his own ends.
But they are the rare breed of businessmen who don’t seek special favors from government, who in fact oppose them on principle. They are capitalists who hate crony capitalism. In the libertarian paradise that they seek, the Kochs would be freer of government regulation — but so would everyone else.
The $889 million figure is not quite what it seems. It encompasses all the Koch spending, including support for academic programs and think tanks. Nor is “buying” an election all it is cracked up to be. The Kochs spent some $400 million on the 2012 election, and came up empty.

Click here for the article.
For more from Nick Sorrentino, please visit AgainstCronyCapitalism.org