August 09, 2007

Sigh. When last we looked to the southeast, we found Publix Super Markets offering "free" 14-day prescriptions for a number of commonly-used antibiotics. And Florida Governor Charlie Crist was very happy to help Publix make the announcement, with the television cameras only a few feet away.

That was a couple of days ago. Publix announced yesterday that, yes, their offer of free antobiotics stands, like Stonewall Jackson at the the Battle of Chancellorsville (until night fell, anyway), but their practice of matching Wal-Mart's $4 price for many generic medicines now is, as the oldtimers used to say, inoperative.

And let me say that I am shocked, shocked, to find Governor Crist nowhere in the general vicinity of this latest announcement. Maybe today is Prius appreciation day in politically-correct Tallahassee. No matter. Publix' version of Emily Litella's "Never mind" reminds us that no free lunches are to be found; we can pay now or pay a lot more later. Publix ultimately has to satisfy not the editorial writers or even Governor Crist, but instead that big booming capital market, in which investors are a good deal more interested in doing well rather than good. And let us not forget that ultimately it is capitalism and the wealth that it generates that enables any society to display the compassion---the moral obligation to those less fortunate---for which the political class applaudes itself as it spends other people's money.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at August 9, 2007 06:19 PM

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