You can love red light cameras or you can hate ’em. You can consider them legit or just a way to squeeze money out of you.

But what’s beyond dispute is that they are the fulfillment of this Conservative/Libertarian dream of privatizing government functions.

So why does this story surprise anyone?

…A poster to the Everett Herald’s web site turns out to be an employee of the company that sells the red light cams!

Outrageous? Maybe, but not at all surprising.

I believe that’s called “guerilla marketing.”

And it’s a natural consequence of “running government like a business.” A business wants to maximize profit. And if you can get government to help you, so much the better.

Every time someone says “let’s run government like a business” — e-mail them this story.