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| Feature Article |
No Good Deed...
Matthew Schuerman
05/02/2005
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David Koch may be on the opposite side of the political spectrum, but he also sees himself as a man who supports sensible ideas. “I think less taxation, less onerous regulation will improve the economy and benefit all companies,” says Koch, who, with his older brother, Charles, runs and largely owns the energy conglomerate Koch Industries, founded by their father. Although they broke with the Libertarian Party in 1983 because it was too radical, Charles cofounded the Cato Institute, David sits on Cato’s board and they have given generously to free-market think tanks that oppose deficit spending and support the decriminalization of marijuana—as well as less regulation of the oil industry. They figured prominently in Thomas Frank’s recent best-seller, What’s the Matter with Kansas?, in which the author writes that the Kochs, who live in Wichita, have supported “zany free-market policy recommendations that usually aim to starve or otherwise disable government, while making business ever more profitable.”
Being demonized in the press is nothing new to the Koch brothers. “I just live with it,” David says. But finding themselves castigated in a best-selling book raises the possibility that critics of their giving habits will grow even more vociferous. Even so, the Kochs can weather criticism of their philanthropic efforts with minimal impact on their company’s bottom line: Koch Industries is private, and its products, including gasoline and carpet fibers, are high enough in the supply chain that consumers cannot easily target the company and its products for a boycott.
It was easy, by comparison, for some exercise enthusiasts to hurt Gary Heavin’s business. The founder of the Curves fitness club franchise maintains he was the victim of two highly distorted stories in the San Francisco Chronicle, which claimed he had given large sums of money to extremist pro-life groups that block abortion clinics with grisly photos of bloody fetuses.
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