Information Clearinghouse – by Jim Hightower
Even though Koch was raised rich and has now amassed a personal fortune of about $34 billion, he recently gave us a deeper sense of his true worth, measured not in dollars, but in values.
“We want to do a better job of raising up the disadvantaged and the poorest in this country,” he declared. Excellent thought — FDR couldn’t have put it better! Noting that a big problem for the poor is that the Powers That Be “keep throwing obstacles in their way,” Koch cut to the chase, saying, “We’ve got to clear those out.”
Yes, Charlie, I’m with you! Clear out such barriers as the offshoring of middle class jobs, union busting, poorly funded schools and the lack of affordable health care, housing and child care.
But, alas, that’s not at all what Koch had in mind as obstacles to be cleared out. Rather, he proposes to “help” poor people by eliminating — ready? — “the minimum wage.” Why? Because, explains this clueless son-of-the-rich, having a wage floor “reduces the mobility of labor.”
In case you don’t dwell in the plutocratic, narcissistic, Ayn Randian fantasyland where the Kochs hang out, “labor mobility” is right-wing psychobabble for social Darwinism. Remove all remnants of America’s economic safety net, they coldly theorize (while wallowing in their nests of luxury), and the poor will be “freed” to become billionaires.
As Charles puts it, if the disadvantaged had no protections in the workplace and no government programs to ameliorate their poverty, they would then have to scramble just to live, thus freeing them from reliance on society’s helping hand. Freeing them to do what? Well, Koch says, they could then “start a business … drive a taxicab … become a hairdresser.”
What a visionary he is! Where you and I might see people trapped in debilitating poverty, Charles sees a Brave New World of billionaire hairdressers!
But he’s not the only 1-percenter having utopian visions for hard-hit Americans.
For example, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful America’s homeless people are going to be once they hear about Andy Kessler, who has been thinking long and hard about their plight, selflessly seeking ways to eradicate intractable poverty.
Kessler is a former hedge-fund whiz, which means he was in the business of making … well, money. Beaucoup bundles of it. But having seen his 16-year-old son volunteer at a homeless center, he was motivated to develop a plan to solve homelessness — and here it is: Stop dishing out soup to those people, and shut down all those damn shelters!
The homeless problem, he recently wrote in an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal, stems from “all this volunteering and charitable giving” by do-gooders like his son. Homeless folks ought to be working, he lectured, but they’re not, “because someone is feeding, clothing and, in effect, bathing them.”
Golly, Andy, I recall that Jesus said something about our Godly duty to feed and clothe the needy — and even to wash the feet of the poor.
But apparently, Jesus just didn’t grasp the essence of true morality. “Blessed are the rich!” is Kessler’s spiritual mantra. “Where does money come from … to help the unfortunate?” he asked. And yea, I say unto thee, the Holy Hedge-Funder answered his own deep question: It comes from “someone (who) worked productively and created wealth.”
Thus, he sagely concluded, the answer to poverty, to truly helping the poor, is not to pamper the takers, but to provide more tax breaks for the makers of wealth (like him) — the ones who produce “good old-fashioned economic growth.”
Wow, what a role model this guy is for America’s youth — including that misguided boy of his! Wouldn’t you like to buy Andy and Charles for what they’re worth … and sell them for what they think they’re worth? That would fund a whole lot of homeless programs.
To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.
Look, the Koch-suckers are no better than the collectivist idiot that wrote this article. The individual creates the innovation, not the collective, but the individual shares that innovation with the collective to everyone’s benefit. What you collectivist morons want is the destruction of the individual while the Koch-sucker’s ilk want to own the individual and take credit for the innovations produced by the individual. To hell with both your sides of the story because you’re both wrong and I want nothing to do with any of it.
Do you think for one damn minute that Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford (before he caved), Steve Wozniak, Otto, Daimler, Benz, Diesel and so many, many others were able to innovate as collective androids? HELL NO. People like this operate far outside the collective and need morons from both sides to stay out of their way. If you’re an android that wants collectivism, go start a commune and stay the hell out of the way of the individualist innovators that you owe your every comfort in life to.
…yep…
Ditto on that score!
The sad part about this man’s philosophy…or all of their way of thinking…the Koch brothers, Kessler… even Hightower…etc….is that they are all correct!
The old saying, “two-things can be equally true” applies right here! There are many people in the world who have raised themselves up based upon Mr. Koch’s vision of life and how to lead it…but at what cost and at what lost potential? And…there are many who waste their lives and their potential by hanging out in alleyways sniffing powders up their noses! In the cut-throat world of competitive development that our society has created…and now seeks to globalize…all children are raised in an ego-state development process in which the “competitive spirit” is supposed to help the child overcome all obstacles and is designed to separate the “wheat from the chaff”…we see this in our kid’s sporting events, science projects and other contests. All along our lives…we are programmed to respond in a competitive manner…so that when we reach our peak physical moment in life..which happens to correspond to the age of “soldiering”…and war-fare waged by old men…that drive to compete is a knife held by the State…ready to be pushed off, into some rah-rah-sis-boom-bah…type of war-fare based upon lies…but designed to hit the emotional time-bomb of competitive feelings…
As a society,…when we are able to meet Maslow’s basic Needs of Safety and Security (from the State as well)…and we begin to work on the development process of our children..we will then have begun to really tap into their potential…and to hell with Mr. Koch, Mr. Kessler…and Mr. Kissinger, (of “useless eater’s fame).
Regards,
RJ O’Guillory
Author-
Webster Groves _ The Life of an Insane Family
Well liked pro golfer Phil Mickelson who recently won the British Open made a grand total of 2.1 million dollars over the last 2 weeks. The British government is taxing him 45% and when he gets back to California they will taxing him another 13%. Meanwhile Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson had to sell his Goldman stock when W Bush appointed him treasury secretary back in 2007. Paulson cashed in his stock and profited $485 million dollars and paid 0 tax to the IRS. Do things need to change? Hell yes!!
The Koch Brothers are both scum bags and traitors to the US. Read why below:
http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/koch-brothers-100-billion-in-annual-revenue-friends-or-enemies-of-american-middle-class/3490
Nothing wrong with being rich with legit hard work. Being rich, and greedy, and trying to hold people down, that is another story. Th Kochs are a holes that need to be put in G-bay for life.
And to prove we are committee to helping Americans reach their goal of self-sustainability, we’ll go into now bankrupt Detroit and build them a brand new hockey arena using their money. They need this new hockey arena more than jobs, food, shelter and clothing because it will boost their morale! Aren’t we the epitome of leadership?!