You thought Texas Pacific was Bad? We got Koch!

Koch Industries of Wichita, Kansas agreed to pay $13.2B, for Georgia Pacific, a forest products company, with 4,000 Oregon employees.

The primary business of Koch is petroleum products, yet the company is better known for the political activities of its owners. Founder, Fred Koch, was charter member of the John Birch Society. His son, Charles founded the Cato Institute in 1977. Another son, David Koch, ran for V.P. on the Libertarian ticket in 1980. Sam Brownback and George W. Bush received Koch backing through its Triad Management Services subsidiary.

"Koch money subsidizes the mass production of bad ideas," according to Thomas Franks in What's the Matter with Kansas. Franks adds that this includes zany free market policies which serve to starve government while making businesses more profitable.

Remember Citizens (to Confound) The Sound Economy? You know the one! The group which sponsored the referendums to oppose tax increases in Oregon? Citizens received lots of help from Koch.

The right wing think-tank, Cato Institute, is funded by big oil, including Koch to distort the facts and confuse people about the science behind global warming. Patrick Michaels is often cited as Cato's top expert who refutes that humans have contributed to global warming.

The Koch Foundation's investment paid off handsomely when their support of Vernon Smith, free market academic, helped to earn him a Nobel prize. With this prize, Smith and the Cato Institute gained instant credibility for free market theories.

(Summarized from Thomas Franks book, What' the Matter with Kansas.)

If you could rate degrees of evil on a corporate criminality scale, Koch would receive a 10.0! (In my book anyway.)

Look on the positive side, they can't manipulate our electricity bill. Nor can they improve the company like Texas Pacific did after they purchased Gate Gourmet - they can't give us indigestion from spoiled food tainted by vermin infestation.

For more information about the industry funded organizations which Koch includes, try this link and scroll down the list to click on Cato Institute, Manhattan Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Check funders to see that Koch is included.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Industry-funded_organizations

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