“People before profits,” the interstate billboard smugly proclaimed, repeating a chic bromide that does more harm to its vaguely defined cause — “people” — than any profit-monger ever could.
For review, profits:
* help pay tens of millions of salaries to middle-class “people.”
* fund research to cure diseases that plague “people.”
* provide billions of dollars for charities that assist “people.” (Is it OK to ask how many unprofitable businesses made major contributions to United Way last year?)