Two Midwestern cities. Two local billionaires (Koch and Buffett). Which one can boost prosperity?
In the middle of America, without intention or, really, anyone noticing, a decades-long, real-world experiment shaped by the money, politics and eccentricities of two 80-something billionaires is underway in two equally white, Christian, Republican cities.
Just as they left their imprints on a nation and a world, Charles Koch, who hails from Wichita, Kan., and Warren Buffett, a folksy son of Omaha, have changed the trajectories of their hometowns. Today, their cities, like many scattered across the plains, are working to reinvent themselves at a time when economies are threatened and a pandemic grows.
A race is on to draw in millennials from overpriced coastal areas to seed a Midwest revival, and the competition for young professionals is fierce. Neither Wichita nor Omaha are obvious magnets. Both have struggled with brain drain in recent decades. They have lost manufacturing jobs, population growth has slowed, and resignation has settled in.
But both cities are known for one hot commodity: those engaged local billionaires, both of whom consider themselves experts on prosperity.
Koch, 84, is the chief executive of Koch Industries and is worth an estimated $48 billion. He’s a notorious political power broker instrumental in steering the Republican Party toward its current minimalist approach to taxes and government services. Tax cuts coupled with spending cuts, his theory goes, goose the economy and attract jobs.
Buffet, 89, is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and is giving most of his $72-billion fortune to philanthropic causes. He champions public services — especially education — as the rising tide that lifts communities, and he believes that taxing the wealthy is the way to pay for those services.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-07-01/two-midwest-cities-two-local-billionaires-koch-buffett-which-one-can-boost-prosperity
I'v never been to Wichita, but the one time I was in Omaha I found it to be a very attractive city, with a modern, uncrowded downtown and a really nice airport (perhaps because STRATCOM HQ is located there). I thought it would be a pretty decent place to live, except for the weather (I prefer not having to deal with winter snow or spring tornadoes).
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