Koch Brothers: Annual Retreat and Why They Are Decent People

This upcoming week (April 28-29, 2013) Charles and David Koch will be holding their annual retreat in an undisclosed location in Palm Springs, California. Personally I wish I was going.  This will be the 10^th anniversary of holding such retreats. Normally the retreat is held in January however Charles Koch announced he wanted to push it back until April in order to review the election data. I like reading reports about how this is the Koch brothers “secret” retreat. For one the Koch brothers are private citizens and can do as they please. If people want to get together and talk about how to give everyone more liberty, freedom, and in the long run make everyone wealthier I see no problem with that.

ThinkProgress linked the agenda for the 2011 meeting here. I must say I would actually pay to go to this meeting. Speakers include Charles Koch, Peter Schiff, EconTalk host Russ Roberts, AQR Capital Management Cliff Asness. Really this event is more of a free market rally than a secretive meeting. The schedule looks like Monday and Tuesday were filled with free market thinkers that go from 7:30 A.M. to 9:30 P.M.

On the agenda this year is to discuss how to get more Latino voters involved as well as women. Also younger people are also going to be targeted.  At least Charles and David Koch are trying to understand why Republicans lost and figuring out how to fix it. The message of personal responsibility, free markets, and individual liberty shouldn’t be too hard to sell. However, when people get transfer payments from the government in the forms of subsidies, welfare, corporate welfare, or other sources it makes them dependent on government.  

The criticism of the Koch brothers is usually nonsensical. It usually goes something like this…”The Koch brothers pollute, are greedy, and buy politicians government”. Let me take this point by point. If the Koch brothers really did pollute why have they a) been receiving environmental safety awards  (most of these awards were granted by government agencies and not outside parties, b) the pollution data from even the EPA has shown a decrease in pollution for multiple decades. In fact carbon monoxide has decreased 61% (from 1980 to 2009). Sulfur dioxide between the same period decreased 65%. Lead decreased 97% as well. The evidence is against people who claim pollution has rapidly increased. Also do people realize Charles and David Koch breathe the same air as the rest of us? Now let me move on to the next point of greed. Charles and David Koch most likely work more than 60 hours per week based on everything I have seen. As I mentioned in this post David Koch works 10 hour days (it should be pointed out he is also in his 70’s). As I mention in this post Charles Koch was known to work all the time and once had a meeting that started at 4 P.M. and didn’t end until after midnight. Everyone was happy once Charles got married because it meant they had to work less on the weekends. I know people have an image of the Koch brothers as Scrooge McDuck swimming in money. However, they are men that run a multi-billionaire company. For the Koch brothers to say they are for free markets really means even the Koch brothers want more competition (which would actually reduce their profits). However, the reason why I believe the Koch brothers are in favor of free markets is because they understand what creates prosperity and an improved condition for human life. The last time I checked too more countries were trying to orient themselves towards free markets. My post on Market Based Management explains this more.  To answer the last point, no one can purchase a politician. You can give infinite amounts of money to politicians and they can buy the best ads, hire the best consultants, and still lose. People forget Republican Bob Doll in the 1990’s spent an extraordinary sum of money and still lost. At the end of the day millions of people are voting for who they prefer. However, as we saw in this last election cycle politicians are in the business of granting favors. If the 2012 election were held in the 1990’s there would be less of a chance we would have had the same outcome. The rising dependency of government explains the outcome we received.

Personally I hope the Koch brothers each publish an autobiography to explain to people what their lives were really like instead of history writing its own story. The Koch brothers are decent human beings who created  and grew a company, have given hundreds of millions of dollars to the arts, sciences, and cancer research, and have tried to sold their fellow man/woman on why free market capitalism is truly the best path to prosperity.