Charles Koch
Our elected officials would do well to remember that the most prosperous countries are those that allow consumers - not governments - to direct the use of resources. Allowing the government to pick winners and losers hurts almost everyone, especially our poorest citizens.Collection: Government
I studied what principles under-laid peace and prosperity and concluded the only way to achieve societal well-being was through a system of economic freedom.Collection: Peace
Crony capitalism is much easier than competing in an open market. But it erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.
I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.
The successful companies try to keep the new entrants down. Now that's great for a company like ours. We make more money that way because we have less competition and less innovation. But for the country as a whole, it's horrible.
The easy way to make money is to get special political privilege. From the beginning of time, business has cozied up to government and gotten restrictions on competition and subsidies and stuff.
People should only profit to the extent they make other peoples lives better.
You pass a program and get people dependent on it, making it brutal to get rid of. The key is not letting it get started.
When a company is not being guided by the products they make and what the customers need, but by how they can manipulate the system - get regulations on their competitors, or mandates on using their products, or eliminating foreign competition - it just lowers the overall standard of living and hurts the disadvantaged the most.
Laying the groundwork for smaller, smarter government, especially at the federal level, is going to be tough. But it is essential for getting us back on the path to long-term prosperity.
Far from trying to rig the system, I have spent decades opposing cronyism and all political favors, including mandates, subsidies and protective tariffs - even when we benefit from them.
The best way to make money is to have more economic freedom, which is why we are one of the very few large companies that are consistently for it.
Subsidies and mandates are just two of the privileges that government can bestow on politically connected friends. Others include grants, loans, tax credits, favorable regulations, bailouts, loan guarantees, targeted tax breaks and no-bid contracts.
The country - or the government - is headed for bankruptcy. So we're going to be continuing to speak out against corporate welfare as something that hurts everybody except those direct beneficiaries.
I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington.
Far too many businesses have been all too eager to lobby for maintaining and increasing subsidies and mandates paid by taxpayers and consumers.
The role of business is to provide products and services that make people's lives better - while using fewer resources - and to act lawfully and with integrity.
In business, real jobs profitably produce goods and services that people value more highly than their alternatives. Subsidizing inefficient jobs is costly, wastes resources, and weakens our economy.
Koch companies employ 60,000 Americans, who make many thousands of products that Americans want and need.
Far too many well-connected businesses are feeding at the federal trough. By addressing corporate welfare as well as other forms of welfare, we would add a whole new level of understanding to the notion of entitlement reform.
I don't want to dedicate my life to getting publicity.
From the beginning of time, business has cozied up to government and gotten restrictions on competition and subsidies and stuff.
When you start attacking cronyism and people's political interests, it gets nasty.
We are not trying to prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding. Any business that's economical, that can succeed in the marketplace, any form of energy, we're all for. As a matter of fact, we're investing in quite a number of them, ourselves - whether that's ethanol, renewable fuel oil.
It's not going to help the country to be subsidizing uneconomical forms of energy - whether you call them 'green,' 'renewable' or whatever. In that case, the cure is worse than the disease.
Any of the social changes in American history are because people thought there was injustice. We have to show that this corporate welfare and cronyism is unjust - and that it's not only rigging the system so people get wealthy who don't deserve to get wealthy.
The only way you improve is to try new things.Collection: Trying
Embrace change. Envision what could be, challenge the status quo, and drive creative destruction.Collection: Creative
I've always believed in the saying that "there is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit."Collection: Credit
Success is one of the worst enemies of success, because success tends to breed complacency and lack of humility.Collection: Humility
If you never failed, then you're probably not doing very much.Collection: Ifs
If you have methods without principles, you're going to have trouble. But if you develop methods based on principles, then you can make progress.Collection: Progress
We must measure what leads to results, not simply what is easy to measure.Collection: Easy
How do we make people's lives better unless we find the truth of what works and what doesn't?Collection: People
My father would always say "learn everything you can and whenever you can, because you never know when it'll come in handy."Collection: Father
To be happy you have to fulfill your nature. That's what Aristotle taught so many centuries ago, that the road to happiness isn't to go drink more or consume more. The road to happiness is to fully develop your abilities, and then apply them to do good.Collection: Taught
To do meaningful work is to contribute - to create value in society.Collection: Meaningful
Successful companies create value by providing products or services their customers value more highly than available alternatives. They do this while consuming fewer resources, leaving more resources available to satisfy other needs in society. Value creation involves making people's lives better. It is contributing to prosperity in society.Collection: Success
A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value.Collection: People
When everyone gets something for nothing, soon no one will have anything, because no one will be producing anything.Collection: Responsibility
I like to think that I try to learn something every day - and change my views, modify my views as I learn.Collection: Thinking
If what you preach and what you do are inconsistent, your children will spot hypocrisy faster than anybody and do the opposite.Collection: Children
I don't have all the answers. I have a lot of questions. And I have some basic principles.Collection: Principles
My father told me "If you choose to let this money destroy your initiative and independence, then it will be a curse to you and my action in giving it to you will have been a mistake. I shall regret very much to have you miss the glorious feeling of accomplishment. Remember that often adversity is a blessing in disguise and is certainly the greatest character builder."Collection: Regret
Let's say I am a chocoholic and I eat tons of chocolate a day. A hundred thousands of tons a day. I have this craving, but I can't afford it, so I get a printing press, and I start printing money, and I print billions and billions to buy chocolate. So I create this boom in the chocolate industry, so stores are running out of chocolate. So they have demand, so chocolate makers expand. Cocoa growers expand. You create this great boom. But now the feds arrest me and shut me down. And now there is a depression in the chocolate industry. That's what happens with the monetary policy.Collection: Running
Best part of my job is fulfillment. When I see that, that we're creating value, that we're helping improve people's lives, and we benefit from it, so it's a system of mutual benefit. Our philosophy's working. That's what turns me on. That's what keeps me going.Collection: Jobs
Innovation comes from recombining existing technology and different perspectives in innovative ways.Collection: Technology
I try to hire people who will challenge and have the humility to be challenged - people who have basically good values.Collection: Humility
To make a quick buck, but over time, if you're not creating value for others, customers, society, isn't going to let you be around.Collection: Creating Value
Hubris, arrogance, is just one step ahead of loss of integrity, because if you think you're better than other people, you know more, then you're going to think, as many leaders have, that the rules don't apply to them - so they lose their integrity.Collection: Integrity