Charles Koch Believes There Are Two Kinds Of People, Only One of Which He Has to Care About
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
W e usually hear about the Koch brothers as the hidden money power behind most of the wingnut welfare apparatus. They have become so notorious for their political activity that we often forget that they also were major corporate overlords and that, in his day job, Charles Koch, the surviving brother who remains politically active, behaves like the very model of a modern American businessman.
Which is to say like a cold-blooded plutocrat who believes that there are two kinds of people—his kind and nobody to care about. From the Guardian:
Workers at Georgia-Pacific, a paper and building products company, have been locked in a years-long battle with a company over claims asbestos in its products caused fatal cancers. The case has come as the Koch brothers’ political network has pushed for legislation to protect companies facing asbestos-related claims and limit payouts for victims. Koch Industries bought Georgia-Pacific in 2005. The company faces over 60,000 asbestos lawsuits but has not paid out anything since 2017 when the company conducted a controversial maneuver known as the “Texas two-step”.
This, it should be noted, is not the great lost recording of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
Under Texan bankruptcy law, a corporation can divide itself into two companies, loading any lawsuit liabilities into one company and its assets into another. In Georgia-Pacific’s case, a new firm, Bestwall LLC, was created for the asbestos liabilities. Bestwall filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Georgia-Pacific, which also makes Brawny paper towels and Dixie cups, has continued with its normal operations. Koch Industries received $2.5bn in dividends from Georgia-Pacific in 2022 and has received over $5bn in dividends since the asbestos liabilities were moved to Bestwall. The lawsuits filed for and on behalf of asbestos victims have been in limbo.
Limbo is a place where all the best people never pay their debts, moral or otherwise.
Lori Knapp’s father, Ed Chapman, worked in construction through the 1970s in south Florida during a housing boom, often working with drywall containing asbestos. “He didn’t know that he was being poisoned. None of his co-workers knew that they were being exposed to hazardous material. They worked hard every day. My dad worked seven days a week if there was a job to do. He did it. He didn’t stop until the job is done,” said Knapp. “They were killed by these products.” Knapp said her father was semi-retired when his doctor found a spot on his lung during an annual check-up. It was biopsied and it came back as mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma has been the villain in asbestos-related deaths for over 60 years. (In 1992, it was a massive asbestos settlement that enabled Peter Angelos and several other investors to buy the Baltimore Orioles.) Asbestos' role as a causative agent in mesothelioma deaths is beyond serious question, so companies seeking to get out from under lawsuits know that attacking the science is futile. So they look for legal strategies to keep from paying victims. This is one of those.
The billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David have funded and supported legislative efforts to make it more difficult for asbestos victims and their families to collect compensation. The brothers had been long-time backers and donors to the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which has championed these bills in at least six states. The Kochs have also lobbied against increased regulation of asbestos.
And not long ago, the carefully manufactured conservative majority on the Supreme Court heard a case that would demolish the Chevron deference, which might destroy the power of federal regulators to do, well, anything. In one way or another, much of the money used to manufacture the majority came from the Koch operation. And round and round it goes, just out of reach of the law and the victims.
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This, it should be noted, is not the great lost recording of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
Limbo is a place where all the best people never pay their debts, moral or otherwise.
From the article above.
Charles Koch, the surviving brother who remains politically active, behaves like the very model of a modern American businessman. Which is to say like a cold-blooded plutocrat who believes that there are two kinds of people—his kind and nobody to care about. - From the Article Above.
The billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother David have funded and supported legislative efforts to make it more difficult for asbestos victims and their families to collect compensation. - From the Article Above.
Charles Koch, the surviving brother who remains politically active, behaves like the very model of a modern American businessman. Which is to say like a cold-blooded plutocrat who believes that there are two kinds of people—his kind and nobody to care about.