> Privatize the profits, socialize the costs (like toxic cleanup).

Any business would love to do the same, if possible. Because that's the businesss: increase the profits.

Should it then be considered a "natural" way? And where should we draw a line (if any) on what's ok?

> Privatize the profits, socialize the costs (like toxic cleanup).

Of course you privatise the profits. Profits come after public taxes.

You mention taxes, that's part of the issue here.

In America we aren't particularly good market capitalists and bail out corporations (see 2008) when they fail and then generally never have any sort of similar process for when they succeed (see Big Energy companies right now). So we're all for market capitalism when things are going well...but not when they're going poorly.

The concept that seems to be missing/underused is "windfall tax".

Google tells me we tried it in 1980 under Carter and apparently did a horrendous job of it but the concept seems sound enough.

I'm not sure I understand. I'm saying one of the first things we do is take tax. So we always get taxes, but businesses don't always get profits. And by definition those profits are private, because the government has already taken money out.

Profits are what's left after doing things useful enough people voluntarily pay for them, paying others for their share in achieving that, and then the government taking the amount of money it decides it wants to take. How could the leftovers not be private?