Koch: Accept No Substitutes
Currently at the high water mark of his public vilification, conservative/libertarian benefactor and energy executive Charles Koch has taken to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal today to defend his family’s consistent advocacy for free markets and limited government. The entire piece is excellent, but what’s most notable is his broadside against corporate welfare – a topic on which even the most ostensibly conservative members of the business community get very squishy very fast. To wit:
Government spending on business only aggravates the problem. Too many businesses have successfully lobbied for special favors and treatment by seeking mandates for their products, subsidies (in the form of cash payments from the government), and regulations or tariffs to keep more efficient competitors at bay.
Crony capitalism is much easier than competing in an open market. But it erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.
The purpose of business is to efficiently convert resources into products and services that make people's lives better. Businesses that fail to do so should be allowed to go bankrupt rather than be bailed out.
“The purpose of business is to efficiently convert resources into products and services that make people’s lives better”. That may be the most articulate, concise defense of the moral purpose of business extant. Thanks to Mr. Koch for reminding the nation that public service need not require a government job.
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Dec '10
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
We need a hundred of this guy.
People who are willing to stand up for what they believe in, defend it without reservation, and live what they advocate in their day to day lives.
The things people do when nobody is looking will tell you everything you need to know about that person.
Aug '10
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
And the purpose of business is to enrich it's owners so that they may share in their wealth according to rules within their chosen form of government to protect the citizenry at large from whatever ills that government is directed to provide protection from . And to endow the cultural institutions of society in order to bring the arts to that same citizenry. And to make their family and friends as comfortable as they see fit by buying the goods and services offered by their fellow citizens.
Thanks Mssrs. Koch.
Oct '10
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
The Kochs are showing more courage than the current managers of Walmart, whose response to lefty criticism was to hire someone who loves to funnel corporate funds to lefty groups.
Hey, Charles - can you diversify into retail sales? I'd love to have a real alternative to that leftward-drifting behemoth.
Oct '10
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
Now that is epistimological self-awareness!
Jan '11
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
As others have said we need more people like him. Some things are just more powerful when they come from the right sort of people. A billionaire businessman criticizing corporate welfare is much more powerful than when a journalist living a hair's breadth above the poverty line - just to take a random hypothetical example - says it.
Feb '11
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
"reminding the nation that public service need not require a government job"...indeed. The arrogant assertion that government and "nonprofit" jobs represent "public service" in a way that for-profit jobs do not needs to be challenged at every turn.
Is a government worker who writes papers on agricultural policy more of a public servant than the farmers who actually grow food and bring it to market? Is a Congressman who spends a couple of decade enjoying the tangible and psychological perks of power and then retires to become a lobbyist more of a "public servant" than someone who starts a business?
To a very substantial extent, the phrase "public service" is a neon sign behind which the business of parasitism is carried out.
Feb '11
Re: Koch: Accept No Substitutes
George Buckley, CEO of 3M, shows some spirit and courage:
"I judge people by their feet, not their mouth...We know what his instincts are - they are Robin Hood-esque. He is anti-business,"
"There is a sense among companies that this is a difficult place to do business. It is about regulation, taxation, seemingly anti-business policies in Washington, attitudes towards science,"