ABSTRACT
Advertisers and politicians often like to assure us that they are maximizing our benefits while minimizing our costs. A moment's thought reveals that this combination of buzzwords doesn't make sense. Minimum costs occur when we don't spend anything, and this will not produce maximum benefits for anyone. Faced with this argument, the perpetrator usually says, "You know what I mean." But I don't, unless what he means is that he wants to take a position that can be moved around to suit the occasion.
