Wednesday, May 25, 2011

ACADEMIC FREEDOM FOR SALE CHEAP!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 | Posted by Jim Hightower

Billionaires are different from you and me, for obvious reasons, including the fact that they buy much pricier baubles than we do.

A sleek car costing $100,000? Why that's just an impulse purchase. A few million bucks for a Matisse original? Go ahead – it'll liven up the hallway. How about throwing a fat wad of cash at a university to get an academic chair named for you? Sure, it's all a part of living in BillionaireLand.

Then there are megalomaniacal mega-billionaires like the Koch brothers. Using money from their industrial conglomerate, their foundation, and their personal fortunes, these two far-out, laissez-faire extremists are literally buying public policy. Their purchases of everything from politicians to the tea party help them push the privatization of all things public and the elimination of pesky regulations and taxes that crimp their style.

READ MORE

No comments: