I'm not sure what I'd do for entertainment without the excitable pre-schoolers over at The Politic to liven up my day, as does one Martin Street as he defends the most vulnerable and defenseless among us -- the oil companies:
Demagoguing gas prices is one of the easiest rackets in politics. For many people high pump prices indicate that some sort of duplicity is going unpunished, because they are willfully ignorant of basic economic ideas like the profit motive. The idea that big evil oil companies should be “allowed” to create maximum value for shareholders is simply wrong because it goes against what they superficially perceive as being the public good. As if corporations (except for their own employers, of course) were charities, and in the case of big oil, charities run amok that need to have their status reviewed.
Yes, those perky right-wingers who are adamant that businesses are obligated only to maximize the profits of their shareholders are, of course, the same folks who tell us that government functions should be privatized to just such companies since that would, in the long run (wait for it ... wait for it ... here it comes) save us money.
I await the day when the two hemispheres of Martin's brain are finally introduced to one another. I will try to have popcorn at hand.
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