Brave new world....

I've read some of your posts here decrying this film as propaganda and arguing fervently in favor of the future libertarian utopia that will be ushered in by a cabal of Koch owned/funded/controlled political puppets compliments of the Citizens United ruling. It might be helpful and instructive if you had some appreciation of what kind of changes these gentlemen have in store for our country; David Koch was on the libertarian ticket for the presidency in 1980 - here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David ran on:

•"We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission."
•"We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs."
•"We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services."
•"We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry."
•"We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary."
•"We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service."
•"We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes."
•"We support the eventual repeal of all taxation."
•"As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately."
•"We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws."
•"We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended."
•"We condemn compulsory education laws ... and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws."
•"We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit."
•"We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency."
•"We support abolition of the Department of Energy."
•"We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation."
•"We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system."
•"We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called "self-protection" equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets."
•"We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration."
•"We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration."
•"We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children."
•"We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and 'aid to the poor' programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals."
•"We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households."
•"We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act."
•"We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission."
•"We support the repeal of all state usury laws."

The governing philosophy of the Koch brothers has remained essentially unchanged since 1980. The "libertarian" movement is your classic wolf in sheep's clothing; the freedom they actually espouse is for an elite few to institute an oligarchy where in this insulated privileged caste are "freed" of any regulation, oversight, or restraint so that they can loot and ransack the entire country. No public education, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, FDA, EPA, minimum wage, safety regulations in the workplace, usury laws, children's services, consumer protections and safeguards, or services to assist the poor and aged....eliminating these would have some curious repercussions. With no Medicare the normal scenario would see a person work 50+ years in this country, settle down to a pleasant retirement only to get sick, spend 2 weeks in the hospital and come out to find themselves financially ruined and in immense debt; depending on how old you are this could be your grandparents or your parents....or you.

With no FDA there would be virtually no oversight of food, beverages, drugs or medicinals; not to worry though - I'm certain that anything that the Kochs or their fellow billionaires ingest will be guaranteed to be of the utmost quality....you and your family on the other hand..... The end of the public school system would mean that even the most basic education would only be available to those whose families could afford private/charter schools. Ending the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would remove any health and safety related oversight and regulations from the American workplace - if your boss has you working in a veritable deathtrap....tough luck....that's your misfortune. Ending consumer product safety laws means that if your car malfunctions and blows up - immolating half your family in the process - your pretty much screwed, especially if it is paired with the Koch's initiatives on tort reform which would essentially eliminate people's ability to seek punitive damages in cases like this in the first place. Are you getting the general picture?

Of course the provision for ending regulations that impede a person's ability to find work would not only eliminate minimum wage - 40 hour work week, overtime pay, vacation days, sick days, personal days, child labor laws (hey, if we are going to eliminate public education then we have to put these kids to work at an early age....right?), holiday pay, etc. - it would all be eliminated in the name of freedom and deregulation....and with the virtual end of unions and the labor movement in this country there would be no way of ever winning back those hard fought rights and privileges once they are lost. Is it any wonder that one of the most pervasive central themes of the Koch brother's mantra is for the complete elimination of collective bargaining rights in the United States; that so many of you actually think this would benefit American workers in the long run is positively mind boggling.

I also like the idea of privatizing the roads - instead of paying tolls towards the upkeep of services for the community you would be putting money directly in the pocket of whatever robber baron happened to own that stretch of road you were on....and naturally he could charge whatever he wanted. Someone could purchase the road on which your house is and charge you a fee to leave and enter your own home; they could even close the road and deny you access to your own house since it's not a public road but their private domain that they are allowing you to use. Privatization of the systems that bring water to households....now there's a good idea; if I owned your water supply I wonder how much I could jack up your water bill in the midst of a drought? Hey, it's my water and with no oversight or regulation I can do with or charge whatever the hell I want for it. How about privatized police departments? The Kochs were floating this very idea just a few weeks ago....brilliant notion....instead of a public police force sworn to protect and serve the community which compensates them via tax revenue we would essentially have private armies and goon squads whose allegiance would be to whichever private individual holds the purse strings....gee, nothing could possibly go wrong there, right?

Naturally the main benefit for the Kochs of this libertarian platform would be the elimination of taxes on themselves and their similarly wealthy fellow travelers. The wealth, power and influence of the elite would skyrocket exponentially while conditions for the overwhelming majority of Americans would be like those of a third world country - which is exactly what the Kochs are hoping for. Naturally they would then play the libertarian mantra of how with hard work and effort you too could succeed like they did....which is a peculiar juxtaposition of the truth when you consider that the Kochs inherited from their father a fortune in the 1960s that would have been valued in today's dollars at roughly 3.34 billion dollars. How hard did they have to work to have a rich daddy?

Following their blueprint the United States would eventually stop functioning as a viable nation and become a series of feudal fiefdoms with an all powerful aristocracy ruling over an uneducated, terrified, hopeless beaten down serfdom. I understand that most of you support free enterprise, open markets and personal initiative....as do I; but as you support the Koch brothers please try to understand the vision they have expressed in the past, present and future as to what they want this country to be. If they succeed in revamping this nation to their wishes then the future will not see the building of fences to keep people out of the United States - they will have to build fences to keep people in....