Quotes From The Koch's And Richard Fink

Quotes from Charles Koch
Charles G. Koch, chairman of the board and CEO of Koch Industries Inc.

Washington, D.C.
It’s a very corrosive atmosphere. As (economist Friedrich) Hayek said, you get there, and you get what he called the Fatal Conceit. You start to believe that a few wise people back there know how people should live their lives better than the people themselves did.
So we need to tell them more and more how to live their lives, what kind of toilet they can have, what kind of food they can have. You don’t want to eat fat anymore. You shouldn’t have coffee.

The poor
I think it’s scary with this administration that is fundamentally dedicated to transforming this country, and that means bigger and bigger government, more intrusive, less productivity, less opportunity. And so who does that hurt the most? Hurts the poorest people. The less productivity, they’re the ones that suffer. It’s not going to change my lifestyle that much. It’s going to hurt them.

Free markets
A free-market economy starts with property rights that are defined in a way, that those who, to get benefit from your property, to profit from use of your property, you need also to bear the cost. And if you get the benefits, but you’ve socialized the cost, get other people to bear the cost, then you get unproductive behavior, and the system breaks down.

Politics
One thing we’re trying to do, is find others, other business people and philanthropists who have the courage and the dedication to defend a free society. But unfortunately a majority of large public companies are not into that. They don’t have the courage because they are afraid they’ll be punished, their products will be boycotted, or they’ll be attacked, as we are by the administration and the media.
Or, they’ve become cronyist, and oriented their business to satisfying the politicians rather than individual consumers.

Political parties
I’m neither Republican or Democrat, although we support more Republicans than Democrats, because although many of them are far from our ideal, they would be closer to it than most of the Democrats. But if there’s a Democrat who’s more interested in a free society and economic freedom, and how to increase productivity, and human well being in society, we’d support those people.

Integrity
We have it as principle number one for a reason. Because integrity is a requirement for trust. And if you don’t have trust with people you deal with, becomes very difficult to deal with. I mean, if you have to document everything, check on everything, have very detailed rules, I mean, productivity, cooperation break down. So that’s number one on who we hire, who we promote, who we retain. If we have somebody who shows a lack of integrity, we try to get them out of here as fast as we can.

Happiness
The essential condition for happiness is fully developing your abilities, whatever they are, your unique abilities, and then applying them in a way that makes a contribution.
Being the best mechanic you can be is just as good, if you’re satisfied with it and you’re making a contribution, as making a lot of money or being a neurosurgeon, or anything else, because you can’t control what capabilities, what your unique characteristics, are. Those are given and you just need to find out what those are and develop them.
© 2012 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

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Quotes from David Koch
David H. Koch, executive vice president and a board member of Koch. Industries.

National debt
A possible forecast of what might happen if these policies continue is the nation of Greece. My god, their debt is gigantically high, unemployment is well over 20 percent in Greece, and they have rioting in the streets, God forbid that should happen to us.

The Environmental Protection Agency
We have some very large refineries, and we have some great projects that we’d like to invest in to meet the demands of our customers, that is, the aviation fuel customers, the heating oil customers, and motor gasoline customers, and these refineries that we have... Well, the EPA has been sitting on several hundred requests from refineries and chemical plants to upgrade and expand their facilities. And the EPA has only, since Obama’s been president, granted one permit. And that permit is being litigated by environmental groups blocking it, so refineries are essentially paralyzed, they can’t expand and improve their operations.
My god, we’re a fossil-fuel-based society. And I think we’re going to have, if this continues, a big shortage of fuel to operate our economy.

Family
My parents had a strict policy that all of us dined together. We always had dinner at 6:30. We had a big bell outside our back door of our house, which someone would ring when it was time to come, and no matter where we were, we had to run back to the house and sit down with my parents. Father was a very principled, highly ethical person, and also he had many fabulous experiences in his career, and it was wonderful to listen to him tell these stories, of experiences he had.

Philanthropy
Most of the income I receive, and my brother, we give it away for various purposes. I in particular am very supportive of medical research, in particular cancer research. I’m a major giver of funds support to cultural institutions. I’m very well known in New York City, where I live, as a major supporter of cultural institutions. And the educational institutions I attended, I’m very generous with them. Actually, of all the things that I engage in and supporting, my political activities are probably the least of the four categories I just mentioned to you.

Cancer
If one is exposed to cancer, it’s a terrifying disease. Boy, when I first found out I had prostate cancer 20 years ago, I thought, oh, my numbers are really bad, and I thought I was a goner and that I might pass away within the next year. I’ve been treated in many different ways, and the Good Lord has been sitting on my shoulder, and in my opinion protecting me, and I’m in great shape now. I still have prostate cancer, but it’s well under control.

Legacy
After I pass on to another life, I would like the people to think of David Koch and my brother Charles as people who did everything they could to make the world a better place to live. And that we tried to improve the situation … and do good work in all these different areas. I’m doing my darndest to make that happen, and so people think of me in a positive light. That my life was a good life, that I contributed immensely to improve the well-being of others.

© 2012 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansas.comRead more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/13/v-print/2528716/david-h-koch-executive-vice-president.html#storylink=cpy

Quotes from Richard Fink
Richard Fink, executive vice president and board member of Koch Industries; chairman of Koch Companies Public Sector, which provides legal, government and public affairs services.

Prosperity
So what we are trying to focus on is: how do you increase prosperity?
And that is not just because of a couple of billionaires who want to put more money in their pocket. I mean they have more money than they know what to do with. OK, it’s the fact that every aspect that we can measure, the world is better off in economically free societies.
No retreat
Charles and David have been unwilling to back down like most people, most businesses do. Most business people say, ‘Listen this is, uh, crazy to go up against these forces. We will just lay low, you know, try to survive, and feed off government spending like most corporations do.’ Instead, they said, ‘No we are going to devote the time and energy to try to make it right at great personal risk and sacrifice.’
Lightning rods
With Charles and David I’ve seen no inclination of them to do anything but to double down to commit to this, regardless of the consequences. I actually think it’ll be ugly either way for us. We’re just too much of a lightning rod. We’re too significant. We do too many things. So if Obama doesn’t get elected, the other side will say, ‘We got to take the Kochs out in order to be successful in the future.’ If Obama gets elected, they’re going to say ‘Those Kochs, the dirty bastards, we need to neutralize them for the future.’ So I think it’s going to be a tough time for us. I don’t really see an easy scenario for the future.
Freedom
We think freedom and prosperity is unusual throughout history. And that this is a very, very scary time. So we are serious about it. Someone asked me over the weekend, this business group: ‘Are you guys as powerful and crazy as the media makes you out to be?’ And I said, ‘No, we are not nearly as powerful. I wish we were, quite frankly…Crazy, I don’t know, that is a very open question.’
President Obama
The level of government spending and regulatory expansion within the Obama administration, if extrapolated out over a relative short period of time, is economically devastating.
Campaign to change America
If we’re wrong, we’d obviously be doing damage, but we’re absolutely convinced we’re doing the right thing, based on the knowledge that we have. We realize we may be wrong. But you have to maximize the use of resources you have to achieve those results you want. That’s what we’re trying to do.
War on poverty
The view of government now is one of wealth redistribution, and solving all these problems, which we think government is ill-equipped to do. And we think that if you look at government attempts to do that in the past, the evidence is pretty clear, I mean the war on poverty generated more poverty, despite trillions of dollars.
Ending subsidies
It is time for businesses community to get up and fight for the economy and fight for America. So we are using everything we possibly can do to try to convince people that this is the right thing to do. We will not connect, the large corporations will not get behind this, but we think the mid- or small-midsize businesses will.
© 2012 Wichita Eagle and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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