Kocks go to skool

(riffing on this:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/koch-brothers-education_n_5587577.html)

“Corporatism v. Free-market Capitalism
Deregulation is what caused recession in 80s, Economic problems of today
Rich get richer at the expense of the poor
FDR/New Deal brought us out of the depression
Government wealth transfer programs help the poor
Private industry incapable of doing functions that public sector has always done
Unions protect the employees
People with the same job title should be paid the same amount ...
Minimum wage, "living wage," laws are good for people/society
Capitalist societies provide an environment for greed and materialism to flourish
Socialist countries do just fine, people have great lives there (using this as proof that socialism works”


There's the list of “fallacies” that YE intends to “refute” in their classes. A creature of the Kock brothers,the “Young Entrepreneur” wooden horse is an “alternative curricula” that they intend to place in Public Schools.
Well and good, even though I could argue with each and every point...they sure have the right to try to “help”.
But where's the Zinn Curriculum?...
Or something!...
Who shall present one of the other sides of the tale?
That it's presented in the dichotomy: Corporatism vs. Free Market...is silly.I mean, I'm not “corporatist”, and it ain't ME that owns a giant Corporation”...Ha!

But what do we expect?
I'd warrant, that such belief systems don't belong in Public Schools...unless presented right along side all of the other belief systems.
This amounts to the same thing as imposing a Baptist or Lutheran, or any other Fundamentalist worldview.
I could spend all day picking their schema apart...but my criticism will never darken a Public School's door. I can't give them thousands of dollars...after helping to buy elected officials, in order to defund the Public part of Public Education...thus making these schools desperate for cash.
For most of my life I've heard myths that, variously, the Russians, the Chinese, the CPA, the “Libruls”, Gays, Feminists , Gangsta Rappers,Hair Bands and everybody else...was trying to Indoctrinate our Youth...to Poison the minds of Americans...and make them (communists,etc).
(Does anybody else recall this?)
Yet here are the most Anti_commie, Anti-Liberal,Anti-Democratic, and even Anti-republican(small 'r'), guys in all the land doing the very thing that they have warned about since at least the 1930's.
To be clear, I think it would be great if we could teach something like Entrepreneurial ism, and at least Basic Econ....I'd go further and require at least Intro. Philosophy, and a couple of classes...say 2nd 8th and 12th grades...on Logic and Logical Fallacies.
But all sides of any controversy would have to be included.
Similarly, I reckon that after all the hollering for all these years, we should at least mention in Biology Class, that there's a bunch of folks that have issues with many of the Foundations of Biology.
(Do the Fundies really want a bunch of Science Teachers “teaching” Creationism?lol.)
I think it's not too far fetched to at least acknowledge the “controversy”, regarding Natural Selection, etc.

In relation to the Kocks' Kurrikulae, go on...teach Hayek...but teach Marx, Habermas, and all of the rest, as well.
I'd be thrilled if some random person on the street knew what Georgism is.
But I would never suggest that we, the People, use our Public Schools to teach ONLY Georgism.
That's what's happening in Kansas, and spreading elsewhere, where the ground has been prepared by Fox, and Tea and all the rest.
Too, while all that Freedom sounds nice...how does such an outlook comport with Objective Reality. After all, Kock Industries is hardly a “Small Business”...it ain't the Mom and Pop Cafe, or Bodega....and it shouldn't be lumped in with those truly Small enterprises.
Funny how that distinction is always overlooked by Fundamentalist Free Marketeers.
Too, it seems to gloss over further distinctions, between the experiences of a Real small business and a super large megacorps(e)...like with “Deregulation”...in all such talk(and it seems, in this Kurrikulae), Raytheon, Cargill and Kock are all counted as Little Guys...just trying to make their way in a hard old world...just like Uncle Jimmy's Auto Body Shop...
...and that mean old gummint just keeps on picking on them.
This kind of false-equivalency is necessary for the Very Large, and the Very Rich that hide in them, to continue to undo the gains made in the last 100+ years, to rein in the Very Large...lest they, themselves, become a Threat to Freedom.
It's always only one side of the coin...and NOT the side that's been laying in shit all day.
In my taxonomy, at least, this phenomenon is right at the root of Right Wing thought.
TINA, again.
Only my one True Religion is to be taught and observed...and the people are too stupid to know any better, so they need me to force them to learn and observe my one True religion.
This particular effort hasn't risen to that level...yet.
And to be fair, neither has the push to “include” Creationism...or the less spooky sounding “Intelligent Design”...in Public School Biology(“teach the controversy”). But moving the goal posts is a tried and true feature of all things Righty.
(see: anti-abortion=>anti-contraceptives=>anti-pleasure, just in the last year or two)(as I am not a Puritan, why should I be subject to Puritan Law?)
I'll even allege that the Fox Effect has all but prepared the minds of a great many people for the idea that One Side is all that is needed, or wanted.
Counter-Enlightenment, at it's best.
I expect to hear about this Kock educational junta in the near to mid-term out here in the sticks.
It's right up Mason's alley.
We already jumped onto the whole “leader in me” jingo ride...luckily, there's been little effect aside from slogans and the over-use of posterboard...but at what cost to the community?
That's a big unknown.
That slick campaign was rejected by the tax payers...and was instead funded by “concerned members of the community”.
This Kock YE initiative is just as odious and just as one sided...but this actually promises to pay the school cold hard cash(if they have a sufficient number of poor kids, apparently) for pushing the Kock Ideology onto the kids...without any debate or rebuttal.
As usual with Fundies of all stripes and spots, they are afraid of Dissent...
...................
I think it's probably obvious to whomever reads me, that I despise Corporations.
I see them, increasingly, as a sort of Artificial Intelligence...like Skynet...or the Machine in the Matrix...Omnius.
Consider the current Scotus...(noticeably absent: all the hollering from the Right about “activist judges”)
The very thought that Exxon has Freedom of Speech...let alone Freedom of Religion...beggars credulity.
(I pick on Exxon, as a stand-in for Corps(e) in general)
Where does Mr. Exxon live?(or Ms.? Mrs.?)
I's like to find this “Person”, in order to slap him/her/it with my glove...
swords...at dawn...

According to these folks(and others):(https://opencorporates.com/)...Mr. Exxon lives almost everywhere...depending on the needs of the moment.
“Headquarters” are in the Woodlands, Texas...according to news reports....just up the road from where I grew up.
Does the “Person”, Mr. Exxon, live there?
This whole morass is one of my major peeves with the current mileue.
It is totally unacknowledged in the Kock Kurrikulum.
Similarly absent, aside from the predictable hatred and fear of “Unions”...is the reality that the Kocks and other Really Rich People, and numerous Corporate Persons, enjoy their own “Unions”.
There's a Pro-Business Union in just about every town in America.
It's known as the “Chamber of Commerce”.
What about the National Restaurant Association? Or the various Unions of convenience stores and retailers?
I'm told, solemnly, “Oh, that's about Freedom of Association...protected by the First Amendment...”
We are to leave aside criticism of such gross hypocrisy, it seems.
YE will pay for our “Public” Schools, and our collective Blind Eye/short term memory loss is the price we must pay.
(at what point are they no longer “Public” Schools?)
Another thing that we must ignore....the Kock prescription for “Liberty” has actually been implemented...since the late seventies, at least, our Nation has run that “Free Market” Experiment.
...and it's been awesome for the few who benefit from such policies...but it's been an unmitigated disaster for everyone else.
This is not merely my Opinion...there is ample Evidence for it.
Global Labor Arbitrage, Stagnation of Wages, relative to Inflation...the increasing share of economic activity enjoyed by the FIRE sector...CEO Pay, relative to everyone below them...Productivity Gains accruing at the top...the Pension Debacle...Tax Evasion...on and on and on...indeed, the results of this 30 year experiment indicate that:”Capitalist societies provide an environment for greed and materialism to flourish “,and “Deregulation is what caused recession in 80s, Economic problems of today “, and certainly that,”the
Rich get richer at the expense of the poor “.(from the top)
And yet the Cheerleaders for Corporate Feudalism can, with solemn visage, call themselves Free Market Capitalists...opposed to the “Corporatism of the Left”.