Charles G. Koch, libertarian philanthropist billionaire and favorite villain of conspiracy-minded leftists, says he and socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders actually agree on something big: they both hate cronyism.

In a column in Friday’s Washington Post, Koch writes:

The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is often rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else, particularly the least advantaged. He believes that we have a two-tiered society that increasingly dooms millions of our fellow citizens to lives of poverty and hopelessness. He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field.

I agree with him.

Koch goes on to explain that the problem isn’t Wall Street in and of itself, but government policies and regulations “that pick winners and losers.”

“This helps perpetuate a cycle of control, dependency, cronyism and poverty in the United States,” he writes, “These are complicated issues, but it’s not enough to say that government alone is to blame. Large portions of the business community have actively pushed for these policies.”

In other words, don’t blame the rich indiscriminately. Blame the business leaders pushing for special favors from Uncle Sam, along with the lobbyists and policy makers who write laws and regulations in their favor.

“The tax code alone contains $1.5 trillion in exemptions and special-interest carve-outs,” Koch says. “Anti-competitive regulations cost businesses an additional $1.9 trillion every year.”

And who suffers when the well-connected get the laws written in their favor? “Perversely, this regulatory burden falls hardest on small companies, innovators and the poor, while benefitting many large companies like ours,” Koch says. “This unfairly benefits established firms and penalizes new entrants, contributing to a two-tiered society.”

According to Koch, Bernie isn’t wrong that we have a rigged system. Where he errs is in expanding government control over these economic decisions that affect so many lives. “This is what built so many barriers to opportunity in the first place.”

Read Koch’s full article here.