Delighted to see all the comments following the excellent review of Charles Koch's lame oped in USA Today.
I have some longish comments to share, as I knew the Kochs when they were attempting to take over the Libertarian Party in the 70s and 80s.
Naturally Charles Koch is promoting his viewpoint, which reinforces his life time attitude about people who, unlike him, did not inherit wealth as being lazy, stupid, and a waste of time. No one would ever have paid him any attention if he was living in his mother's basement and still sleeping on his Star Wars sheets and it is certainly a shame he is not still on those Star Wars sheets today.
But it is well to understand neither Charles or David are Libertarians any more than other Grid-Corporate-types, say Soros, is a Liberal. For these people ideas are evaluated for their usefulness in manipulating us folks who believe lies couched in ideological terms.
Having lots, and lots of money meant Charles could hire people to help promote his ideas and people you can hire to do this kind of work, for instance Rick Fink (Was ever a man more aptly named?) and Edward H. Crane, III, who was hired by the Kochs in their campaign to either control or destroy the Libertarian Party in 1977 so the subsequent presidential campaign could be used to ensure victory for their guy, Ronald Reagan.
However, the Libertarian Party caught on and revolted in 1981 with the election of Alicia Clark as National Chairman. This resulted in a couple years of ugly attacks on her by the Koch Cabal, organized under Crane and through CATO, which was then billed as a 'Libertarian' think tank.
After 1983 the Koch strategy vis a vis the LP became one of destruction and they moved on to various attempts to build a Koch owned and controlled movement which could take over the Republican Party, a quest which has since been completed.
Corporates, or what some of us call Greedvillers, cooperate, having a common goal. They sow issues intended to divide us, Right and Left, and so avoid the terrible possibility we might merge at Point Purple. The Libertarian Movement had the potential to provide this merging place, and this is now happening outside of any political party as folks from the Right and Left discover they agree more often than they disagree.
This is also why recalibrating the meaning of the term, 'conservative' was a serious issue for NeoCons, who are closely affiliated with the Kochs.
As you know, Greedville has branches on both the Right and Left. Pew Institute, originated by Sun Oil. was only the first attempt to inject ideas into culture, law, and politics which were carefully placed for use using their yearly grants. Breaking through this human tendency to take what they hear as Truth instead of keeping an eye on that harbinger of reality, their actions is tough.
A friend of mine and I, he a life-long liberal, me a Libertarian-Conservative Type, have been using cartoonish graphics, some humor, and in-depth research to hurry this process along on the related issues of fracking, tar sands, Bakken, exploding trains and the KXL Pipeline. Our site is kochtruths.com
This last post began our assault on Warren Buffett, covert agent for Greed and compatriot of Kochdom.