By now, you have either seen this video more than once and/or heard about it more than once.
Take the Koch Brothers (please), for instance. Charles and David Koch are tied at being the sixth wealthiest person in the WORLD. They each are forced to get by on a PALTRY net worth of $43.3 BILLION (Forbes: The World's Billionaires List). If they watch their pennies and don't spend any money they don't have to spend, "poor" Charles and David just may get by in life. (Ya think?) Charles and David Koch got wealthy the old fashioned way: they INHERITED their money. Their father, Fred Koch, founded Koch Industries and left the business to his sons. The main industries are oil and gas products, mineral development and chemical production. There are a lot of companies that fall under the Koch Industries umbrella. If you have ever bought Angel Soft, Brawny, Quilted Northern, Dixie or American Greetings products, you are and/or have been a customer of Koch Industries. Koch Industries raked in $115 billion in revenue in 2013. It is safe to say the Kochs are doing okay financially. Yet they seem to be some of the angriest, most mean spirited people in the United States. The Kochs want to see Social Security, public education, industrial regulations (OSHA), Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, food stamps, Affirmative Action and organized labor ELIMINATED. PERIOD. Why? The Kochs have enough personal wealth where they have received private education, have received the best in medical care and certainly have never had to worry about where their next meal was coming from. But they are hell bent on eliminating social safety nets for those less fortunate. These extreme right wing beliefs were fed to them, literally, at the dinner table.
The patriarch of the family, Fred C. Koch, made his first early fortune on the back of the Soviet Union. RIGHT. The Soviet Union. The country that was the birthplace of modern communism. He made $500,000 in 1933 (which in today's money is $6,583,305.08 - DollarTimes.com) from building 15 oil refineries for the Communist Party in Russia. After raking in his fortune from the communist, Fred Koch discovered that he DESPISED communism. He parlayed that money he made from the communists by acquiring assets at dirt cheap prices. The empire rose from there. The Texas Observer published an interest piece on the rise of the Koch empire (Empire Building). Fred Koch later became one of the founding members of the John Birch Society - an ultra-conservative, extreme hard right think tank. The sons, Charles and David, got it from their daddy.
Charles and David Koch spent over $100 million in the 2012 elections. A hundred million dollars is a HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, true, but when your combined net worth is $86 billion that is the equivalent of spending $.11 out of $1.00. In addition to being the chief funding source of the Tea Party, they have either founded and financially supported Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). That is a Who's Who List of flaming spear throwing right wing extremist organizations. The Kochs theory is simple: if you can't BEAT 'em, BUY 'em. Thanks to the Citizen United ruling by the Supreme Court, it is no longer a system of for the people and by the people, it is a system of who can write the biggest checks. There is something abhorrently immoral about multibillionaires who don't want to pay taxes, don't want any industrial regulations, don't want a vast majority of Americans to have access to affordable healthcare, who oppose a competent public education system, who want to eliminate any and all social safety nets afforded those who weren't fortunate enough to inherit a multibillion dollar corporation from their father. It is borderline nauseating to see people who have so much go out of the way to make sure those less fortunate have nothing. They certainly have their detractors. Democracy Now produced a nice piece earlier this year around the debut of the documentary "Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition".
Charles and David Koch certainly aren't the only super rich people who subscribe to an oligarchy system of government. They definitely are the most prominent. They certainly are the wealthiest. So the next time you hear about a room full of people who can afford to spend $50,000 or MORE per person to be in attendance calling those less fortunate than they are "takers" and "moochers", a simple question should come to mind.
WHAT are so many WEALTHY people ANGRY about?
Peace, peace.
Craig Riggins
Email: therigginsreport517@gmail.com
Facebook: The Riggins Report
Twitter: @CraigRiggins
This, of course, is the infamous "47%" video - the rant that all but sank Mitt Romney's remote chance of winning the 2012 presidential election. This was recorded at a fundraising event in a mansion in toney Naples, Florida. Each member of the rant's audience paid $50,000 PER to be there. FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS PER. That's about the average American household income - $50,000. Obviously, this was a well heeled crowd to say the least. The guy speaking was no slouch financially, either. It was reported that Mitt Romney was worth an estimated $250 million. I didn't believe that figure for one minute. I believe Mitt Romney is a BILLIONAIRE. That is one of the main reasons he was reluctant to release his tax returns for the 10 years prior to 2012. Whatever his net worth, this UBER wealthy guy ranted about the 47% of the people in this country who considered themselves victims; who felt entitled to health care to food, to housing ... you name it. I mean WHAT low life "taker" would DARE want to eat food knowing that all human beings need to eat in order to live? Don't these "takers" KNOW the noble American thing to do is to go without food and starve to death? What low life "taker" - especially a taker who lives in area of the country where the winters are harsh - would DARE want to have shelter in harsh, inclement weather? Don't these "takers" KNOW the noble American thing to do is to not want shelter on a cold winter night and to simply expose themselves to the elements and freeze to death? The Romney crowd would refer to that as "DYING with DIGNITY". Another overused conservative buzz phrase is "personal responsibility". Isn't personal RESPONSIBILITY really about your personal SURVIVAL? Which raises another question: WHAT are so many WEALTHY people ANGRY about?
The patriarch of the family, Fred C. Koch, made his first early fortune on the back of the Soviet Union. RIGHT. The Soviet Union. The country that was the birthplace of modern communism. He made $500,000 in 1933 (which in today's money is $6,583,305.08 - DollarTimes.com) from building 15 oil refineries for the Communist Party in Russia. After raking in his fortune from the communist, Fred Koch discovered that he DESPISED communism. He parlayed that money he made from the communists by acquiring assets at dirt cheap prices. The empire rose from there. The Texas Observer published an interest piece on the rise of the Koch empire (Empire Building). Fred Koch later became one of the founding members of the John Birch Society - an ultra-conservative, extreme hard right think tank. The sons, Charles and David, got it from their daddy.
Charles and David Koch spent over $100 million in the 2012 elections. A hundred million dollars is a HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, true, but when your combined net worth is $86 billion that is the equivalent of spending $.11 out of $1.00. In addition to being the chief funding source of the Tea Party, they have either founded and financially supported Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). That is a Who's Who List of flaming spear throwing right wing extremist organizations. The Kochs theory is simple: if you can't BEAT 'em, BUY 'em. Thanks to the Citizen United ruling by the Supreme Court, it is no longer a system of for the people and by the people, it is a system of who can write the biggest checks. There is something abhorrently immoral about multibillionaires who don't want to pay taxes, don't want any industrial regulations, don't want a vast majority of Americans to have access to affordable healthcare, who oppose a competent public education system, who want to eliminate any and all social safety nets afforded those who weren't fortunate enough to inherit a multibillion dollar corporation from their father. It is borderline nauseating to see people who have so much go out of the way to make sure those less fortunate have nothing. They certainly have their detractors. Democracy Now produced a nice piece earlier this year around the debut of the documentary "Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition".
Charles and David Koch certainly aren't the only super rich people who subscribe to an oligarchy system of government. They definitely are the most prominent. They certainly are the wealthiest. So the next time you hear about a room full of people who can afford to spend $50,000 or MORE per person to be in attendance calling those less fortunate than they are "takers" and "moochers", a simple question should come to mind.
WHAT are so many WEALTHY people ANGRY about?
Peace, peace.
Craig Riggins
Email: therigginsreport517@gmail.com
Facebook: The Riggins Report
Twitter: @CraigRiggins
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