No dragons here.

PUBLIC discourse seems monopolized by strange and irrational anthropomorphisms. Politicians talk as if companies--without people--were living, breathing things. Some companies, such as those in the ever-suffering steel sector, are cast as patriotic foundations of our economy; others receive quite the opposite treatment. For committing the sin of impressive profitability, Dr. Jekyll companies are transformed before our eyes into dangerous Mr. Hydes.

The latest victims of this phenomenon are the oil companies. As gasoline prices edge higher, companies such as Exxon-Mobil have become easy targets for government attention. Some especially zealous regulators are calling for a punitive windfall-profits tax. It is as though American consumers were under siege by some fearsome oil-breathing dragon, which can be vanquished only by the lances of IRS knights.

Companies do not, of course, have independent characters. They are simply collections of citizens. Some are workers, others investors. None of them deserves the abuse hurled at them by politicians.

Policies aimed at evil corporate beasts actually harm individual Americans. As the accompanying chart indicates, this is a particularly salient consideration when it comes to oil and gas companies. In a recent study, economists Robert Shapiro and Nam Pham examined who would bear the brunt of a windfall-profits tax. They found that over 40 percent of oil and gas shares are held in public, private, and individual pension funds. This amounts to about $300 billion in equities.

A windfall-profits tax would reduce the value of oil and gas shares by as much as 11 percent. And that damage would spread beyond those with juicy private pensions. Shapiro and Pham point out: ...