KOCH Vs KOCH

Koch vs Koch

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Koch vs Koch

Koch brothers are one of the wealthiest people in the United States of America. Along with the amount of money that they own, they have been able to become one of the most controversial as well. In simple terms, the Koch family has been one of the most powerful in the United States of America and has tried their best to influence the decisions made by the policy makers of the state. This article will go into detail, regarding the sources of power of the Koch brothers and the main ways that they employ to influence the democratic system of the United States of America. Later, the brothers engaged in a power struggle which made things even more interesting. That power struggle and the consequent circumstances will also be discussed in detail.

Koch Industries

Koch industries were founded by the Fred Koch in 1940. The company is the second-largest privately held company in the United States of America. As per reports from credible sources, the company has been able to generate $110 billion in annual revenues. Dues to these stats, the company along with the family has emerged as the second wealthiest in the United States of America. In the beginning, Fred Koch, an MIT graduate and a chemical engineer by profession initiated a new process of converting crude oil into gasoline. The same technique was being employed by Universal Oil Products, which had patented and were using a very similar technique and thus a string of lawsuits followed which were supposed to deter Fred. After nearly a decade later, Koch used the improved process to start his own business in the form of a refinery by the name of Wood River Oil and Refining Company. It was later renamed as Koch industries.

From that moment in time, the company grew manifolds and it has expanded its business into several other domains such as consumer goods and agriculture. Due to that very reason, the revenues of the company have increased to the point where they have been known as the second biggest privately held business of the United States of America. As for now, out of the four sons of Fred Koch, only two play an active part in the management of the family business. Apart from the amount of wealth that the family has been able to accumulate, the thing that is even more interesting is the use that the family is making of the money. The family has been openly employing its resources to fiddle with the American political system and, according to many news reports, is one of the biggest financers of the right wing. The have supposedly cornered the vote bank of the republicans and have been openly funding the republicans. The organizations that affiliate themselves with Koch industries have openly funded the Grand Old Party and made them the biggest beneficiaries of the organization. Around 44,000 political ads were displayed both online and offline to boost republican efforts to get a majority in the Senate. There have also been accusations of trying to buy the white house as well on Koch industries which, obviously they have categorically denied (Bauer, Erdogan, 2009).

In general, the type of influence that the company holds can be characterized as a balance between reward power and coercive power as the company helps certain candidates to a certain position if and only if they agree to protect their interests in the long term. If the candidates they sponsor declines the help in the long term, they will obviously be hurt as their main source of campaigning will be lost, and on top of that they can plan to market the opposing candidate which will simply destroy their chances of winning the election. The list of policies that the Koch brothers have been resisting over the years is given below:

Health reform.

Climate change.

Wall Street reform.

Collective bargaining rights.

Reductions of carbon emissions.

Keeping corporate money in elections.

Fighting internet neutrality.

The organization tries its best to keep their influence hidden but the Center of American Progress published a report aiming to expose a vast network of media and advertisement organizations working under the influence of the Koch industries. The report also aims to show Koch’s right-wing political agenda which they have been trying to fulfill using the company’s resources ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"TLB1cHuc","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mayer, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Mayer, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":257,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/IJDX36MT"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/IJDX36MT"],"itemData":{"id":257,"type":"webpage","abstract":"One less billionaire, but more political clout than ever.","container-title":"The New Yorker","language":"en","title":"One Koch Brother Forces the Other Out of the Family Business","URL":"https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-meaning-of-a-koch-brothers-retirement","author":[{"family":"Mayer","given":"Jane"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,25]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}(Mayer, n.d.). The following is a summary of the report’s findings.

The Koch brothers, whose wealth is the fourth highest in the region, operates in 45 states.

The company’s wealth has been used by the Koch brothers to bankroll the right wing, including the tea party. This means that the resources were not only being used to follow the party but also to fund their party.

There is a good chance that the Koch industries were a big part of the right-wing attacks on health reform, collective bargaining rights just to name a few.

The report claims that at least $85 million were given to al-least 85 think tanks over the past fifteen years for advertisement purposes.

The industry donated directly to around 62 out of the total 87 members of the GOP freshmen class.

The influence of the Koch industry on the 2012 elections is a reality as they raised around $100 million for the campaigning projects.

The Koch brothers have been spending about $5.2 million on the funding of campaigns of candidates and the measuring of ballots in 34 states over the past decade.

The Face-off

As recently as 2014, David Koch was pushed out of the family business by Charles as he was resisting resigning even when his health was gradually deteriorating. Charles pushed David out according to a very close member of the family. Their family went through a legal feud in the 1900s when the brother went up against each other trying to push each other out of the family business, but afterwards David and Charles Koch came together and came to be known as the Koch brothers. During their time in management, the company benefitted a lot but also became very controversial due to their political role. The two brothers came down to a feud once again when they fought during the time of David’s illness. He was trying his best to resist resignation but was forced out by his brother. The technique used by Charles to gain power is known as a combination of reward and coercive power when he slowly and steadily influenced the board of directors away from his brother. Charles was very well established in the organization but so was David ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"fuWrR7Tb","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Schulman, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Schulman, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":255,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/NB8A2NU8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/DTmO0ro3/items/NB8A2NU8"],"itemData":{"id":255,"type":"post-weblog","abstract":"Everything goes back to their childhood.","container-title":"Mother Jones","language":"en-US","title":"Before they attacked Obama, the Koch brothers almost destroyed each other. This is the untold story","URL":"https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/koch-brothers-family-history-sons-of-wichita/","author":[{"family":"Schulman","given":"Daniel"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2020",1,25]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"}(Schulman, n.d.). The only mistake that David committed was that he took the position and management power for granted. On the other hand, Charles was very well aware of his position and did not take anyone for granted and due to this very reason, was able to push his brother out of the company.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHYMayer, J. (n.d.). One Koch Brother Forces the Other Out of the Family Business. The New Yorker. Retrieved January 25, 2020, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-meaning-of-a-koch-brothers-retirement

Schulman, D. (n.d.). Before they attacked Obama, the Koch brothers almost destroyed each other. This is the untold story. Mother Jones. Retrieved January 25, 2020, from https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/koch-brothers-family-history-sons-of-wichita/

Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2009). Organizational Behaviour. Flat World Knowledge. Inc., Nyack, NY.