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And you thought you had it bad. Sure, Bucko, your income might’ve been knocked down, while your outgo keeps going up, and it’s true that neither the corporate bosses nor political big shots give working folks any respect these days, but at least you’re not suffering like Charles Koch is.
Having inherited and expanded his father’s industrial empire, this poor guy is now a billionaire 21 times over, as is his brother David. But, in a recent op-ed piece, Charles wails that everyone from “The White House to fringe bloggers” is assailing the Koch boys. “We are now being vilified, mischaracterized, and threatened,” he exclaims.
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Why? Because, he writes, “My brother David and I have long supported the principles that help societies prosper.” Also, he adds, “we believe economic freedom is essential for improving the well being of society as whole.” So, you see, the billionaire bros are nobly standing for the social good, therefore they are suffering the slings and arrows of socialistic political activists who, he claims, hate freedom and prosperity.
Good grief, what a crock of overcooked Koch narcissism! The “economic freedom” Charles and David seek is solely for corporatist elites like them. They’re spending untold millions of dollars on far-right-wing front groups, candidates, and lobbyists to take away the freedom of workers to organize unions and bargain on pay and benefits; they’re pushing to take away the power of communities to free themselves from industrial polluters like Koch Industries; plus, they’re trying to shut down Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Head Start and other public programs that free people from poverty and illness.
When billionaires start claiming that they are our society’s savior, grab your wallet and democratic freedoms and get your butt to the barricades. Pronto!
“Economic freedom key to improving society,” Austin American Statesman, May 21, 2011.
“Bankrolling the right wing,” http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/04/pdf/koch_brothers.pdf, April 2011.