What could Koch materially stand to gain from this?
He genuinely believes in his principles. Obviously they align with self interest in lots of ways, but he'd be materially better off if he took a much less active role in shaping conservative ideology.
And if it works, its also pretty cost effective.
but I don't think the Koch
brothers take the stereotypical
quarter-by-quarter approach to
capitalism.
Whether you agree or disagree with their position, they're not Wall Street style, short-term optimizers.
Then there's the consequences of these efforts such as https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/17/koch-complianc...
They don't care about workers at all
From what I've heard and experienced, there is a very different culture between the founded-by-the-Koch-brothers companies and the bought-by-the-Koch-brothers companies, mostly due to the fact that the upper levels of management were retained and kept their old ways- there is a huge difference in mentality between the old managers and bosses and the Koch ones.
When it comes to injuries, Georgia Pacific was quite the beleaguered company before the Kochs bought it, too. [1]
They've funded mike rowe [sic] who goes on tirades against osha [sic]
[1] https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2003/03/10/story...
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/nancyberk/2019/06/28/mike-rowe-...
It also largely reduces risk in some foreign investments