Billionaire Koch Reads Hayek And Mises

Whereas the bookshelves of most of America's leading CEOs are stocked with pop corporate management and "how to succeed" books, Mr. Koch's office is a wall-to-wall shrine to writings in classical economics, or, as he calls it, "the science of liberty." The authors who have had the most profound influence on his own political philosophy include F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Joseph Schumpeter, Julian Simon, Paul Johnson and Charles Murray. Mr. Koch says that he experienced an intellectual epiphany in the early 1960s, when he attended a conference on free-market capitalism hosted by the late, great Leonard Reed.

Well, of course those are the authors on every conservative’s bookshelf. And the cool thing is that most liberals have never heard of them. OK so they have heard of Paul Johnson, they revile Charles Murray; they’ve heard the quote about “creative destruction,” and they have a vague recollection of Hayek and Mises.

Best of all, Koch is putting his money where his mouth is.

Charles Koch--no surprise--disdains government and the political class. He has invested tens of millions of dollars into free-market think-tanks and political activist groups (including several founded by this author). He's disgusted with the runaway federal budget under the Republicans, and he proposes that "every new law should be subject to the question: Will it strengthen the culture of prosperity?"

Sounds like my kind of guy.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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