5 Feet of Fury

I’ll say it again: Conquest’s First Law is b.s.

The fact is: Everyone is liberal when it comes to what he knows best.

Exhibit eleventy quillion:

In 1973, when Charles Koch invited the legendary libertarian economist Friedrich Hayek to work for him as a senior scholar to the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), Hayek politely declined, citing health problems.

He had previously undergone surgery for his gallbladder in Austria and couldn’t afford to get sick outside of his progressive free-health-care-covering home country.

Rather than chalk Hayek’s plight up to collateral damage in the fight against welfare, Charles Koch figured that some people’s quality of life was worth taxing the public to maintain, so he sent Hayek a reply letter detailing how he could apply for Social Security in the states and sign up for some of those sweet, sweet government benefits.

The important thing to keep in mind here is that Koch isn’t just some armchair libertarian who was forced to admit under his breath that Social Security is sometimes necessary. He’s a billionaire. He could have not only paid for Hayek’s medical insurance, but bought him a whole new gallbladder made from adamantium.