CHICAGO -- The American economy is based on the pursuit of profit, an approach that has given us one of the highest living standards in the world. But now oil companies are in trouble with Congress, and for what? Making too much money - for being too good at what capitalism obliges them to do.
It's like getting bounced from a Trappist monastery for being too quiet. Lots of corporate executives are lionized by investors for boosting earnings. I can't think of any CEO who succeeded by striving to keep her profits down.
But consistency has never been the hallmark of our elected lawmakers. Confronted with painfully high gas prices, they are eager to punish someone for the resulting discomfort. After the petroleum industry reported sharply higher profits in the third quarter of this year, there was no doubt who would be wearing the tar and feathers.
Recently, the Senate Finance Committee voted to slap the major oil companies with a $5 billion tax aimed at confiscating some of these "windfall profits" - with the votes of four Republicans, whose party supposedly cherishes free markets.
Democratic Sen. Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota has his own plan. When a barrel of oil fetches more than $40, the amount above $40 would be subject to an extra 50 percent tax.
Corporations, of course, already face a top federal tax rate of 39 percent on their profits.
It's true that the industry has been prospering lately. But since when do we penalize companies for making investments that turn out golden? It's not as though ExxonMobil controls the world price of oil, which remains largely under the control of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and nations such as Saudi Arabia. Prices at the pump rose after the United States suddenly lost a lot of refining capacity a few months back, but that interruption was the fault of Hurricane Katrina.
Still, a lot of people think the reason gasoline prices soared in September is that oil companies are greedy. But if that's true, why didn't they raise prices a year ago?
For that matter, why don't they raise them now? The critics on Capitol Hill don't seem to notice that pump prices have fallen by 92 cents a gallon since Labor Day, a 30 percent decline.
That happened mainly because of a couple of minor factors known as supply and demand. Consumers curbed their driving when prices peaked, and in recent weeks, Gulf Coast oil refineries have increased their output. Both factors helped to loosen a tight market. And the big oil companies were somehow powerless to keep prices up.
