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Canned Air Next? |
September 2002
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Free Water Now
Perhaps this makes me curmudgeon of the year, but I hate the very idea of bottled water. I hate the expense, I hate the packaging, and I hate the people who wander around "rehydrating." I'll back any politician who promises to bring back drinking fountains to public places.
There is no excuse for buying water in a bottle. It is a fraud perpetrated on consumers by companies that have chosen to gouge us for something as simple as water. What's next? Canned air?
Here's a simple comparison. Gasoline around the corner from my house is $1.56 per gallon. Getty makes a profit at this price, and it includes shipping the crude from Arabia, refining it in Texas, sending it to Long Island, New York, paying the fellow to pump it (a gentleman does not pump his own gas if it isn't necessary), and advertising.
Go around the other corner, and bottled water by the same people who bottle the world's most popular cola is $3.99 for a 12 pack of 12 ounce bottles, or 2.25 gallons (apologies to our European reader who use a far better measurement system). Or about $1.77 per gallon. For what? It didn't have to be imported, refined, reshipped. Perhaps it was the little plastic bottles themselves?
Perhaps in the 21st century things are so bad that water is more expensive than gasoline. But surely not dearer than cola? The very same shop sells the world's most famous cola for $1.99 per six pack, or $3.98 for 2.25 gallons. That's a cent less than the water! So, the carbonation, coloring and flavoring actually reduce the price.
Bring back the drinking fountains in public places, pay the underemployed to keep them clean and functioning, and quit making a status symbol out of water.