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this is stupid alarmist crap. bottled water isn't a "trick". There is no great deception here waiting to have its "hinges blown off". People are being offere

this is stupid alarmist crap. bottled water isn't a "trick". There is no great deception here waiting to have its "hinges blown off". People are being offered a product that there's obviously demand for. If you want to take issue with the fact that stupidity drives that demand, that's a COMPLETELY different thing.

RK 18y ago
If people want to get upset because of the production energy/resources, they should be more concerned about beer, wine, milk, soft drinks, juices, etc. Water is practically free compared to those things. I've never understood that part of the uproar over bottled water. Why isn't it an uproar over all consumer beverages? I would think milk would be considered the worst offender. How many gallons of gasoline + water does it take to produce a gallon of milk let alone ship it? I guess if people had their own dairy cows then maybe there would be a big uproar over bottled milk too. "Why don't you just go milk your own cow, yuppy scum?"
- scott_s 18y ago
  Because it's redundant. Water is literally piped into most buildings and homes in the Western world. Bottled water has no added value in places with drinkable tap water, but it has a significant extra cost in terms of resource usage.
  - RK 18y ago
    As the OP said, there is demand, and the demand comes from perceived added value (on all of those drinks).
- philwelch 18y ago
  If I had Newcastle Brown Ale piped to my apartment, I'd criticize their bottlers too.
philwelch 18y ago
Bottled water is kind of like credit cards—it's a product there is demand for, but it's not in anyone's interest (aside from the bottled water companies) to buy it. Anyone can buy a single Nalgene bottle ($10-ish) and refill it with tap water every day and they'll make back the price of that Nalgene bottle in a week compared to the price of bottled water. They'll also carry their water around in a reusable, safer plastic that doesn't leech hormones. Or they could use a metal canteen or a Camelbak or any number of other alternatives, almost all of which are better than paying for a completely redundant and inefficient water distribution system that involves bottling factories, trucks, and disposable plastic bottles.
- randallsquared 18y ago
  "it's a product there is demand for, but it's not in anyone's interest to buy it" Pick one. That's what demand means -- that it's in someone's interest (in their own opinion, since no one else can decide a person's interest) to buy it.
  - scott_s 18y ago
    Heroin has demand. That doesn't mean it's in anyone's best interest to use it.
    - randallsquared 18y ago
      It may not be in their best interest in our opinion, but it certainly is in their own. And that's all there is: opinion, ours and theirs. Top-level goals cannot be reasoned to; there is no "ought from is".
      - philwelch 18y ago
        But this isn't a top-level goal. Someone who buys bottled water wants a drink of water. They can get an better drink of water for less money by drinking (possibly filtered) tap water. Bottled water is a poor means to an end, it's not an end in itself. Using heroin isn't usually a top level goal either. Usually, the top level goal for addictive drug use is to satisfy the addiction. (That's rather recursive, which means there must have been a base-case goal that got the person to use drugs in the first place, but heroin is still not an end in itself either.)

RK 18y ago

If people want to get upset because of the production energy/resources, they should be more concerned about beer, wine, milk, soft drinks, juices, etc. Water is practically free compared to those things. I've never understood that part of the uproar over bottled water. Why isn't it an uproar over all consumer beverages? I would think milk would be considered the worst offender. How many gallons of gasoline + water does it take to produce a gallon of milk let alone ship it? I guess if people had their own dairy cows then maybe there would be a big uproar over bottled milk too. "Why don't you just go milk your own cow, yuppy scum?"

scott_s 18y ago
Because it's redundant. Water is literally piped into most buildings and homes in the Western world. Bottled water has no added value in places with drinkable tap water, but it has a significant extra cost in terms of resource usage.
- RK 18y ago
  As the OP said, there is demand, and the demand comes from perceived added value (on all of those drinks).
philwelch 18y ago
If I had Newcastle Brown Ale piped to my apartment, I'd criticize their bottlers too.

philwelch 18y ago

Bottled water is kind of like credit cards—it's a product there is demand for, but it's not in anyone's interest (aside from the bottled water companies) to buy it. Anyone can buy a single Nalgene bottle ($10-ish) and refill it with tap water every day and they'll make back the price of that Nalgene bottle in a week compared to the price of bottled water. They'll also carry their water around in a reusable, safer plastic that doesn't leech hormones. Or they could use a metal canteen or a Camelbak or any number of other alternatives, almost all of which are better than paying for a completely redundant and inefficient water distribution system that involves bottling factories, trucks, and disposable plastic bottles.

randallsquared 18y ago
"it's a product there is demand for, but it's not in anyone's interest to buy it" Pick one. That's what demand means -- that it's in someone's interest (in their own opinion, since no one else can decide a person's interest) to buy it.
- scott_s 18y ago
  Heroin has demand. That doesn't mean it's in anyone's best interest to use it.
  - randallsquared 18y ago
    It may not be in their best interest in our opinion, but it certainly is in their own. And that's all there is: opinion, ours and theirs. Top-level goals cannot be reasoned to; there is no "ought from is".
    - philwelch 18y ago
      But this isn't a top-level goal. Someone who buys bottled water wants a drink of water. They can get an better drink of water for less money by drinking (possibly filtered) tap water. Bottled water is a poor means to an end, it's not an end in itself. Using heroin isn't usually a top level goal either. Usually, the top level goal for addictive drug use is to satisfy the addiction. (That's rather recursive, which means there must have been a base-case goal that got the person to use drugs in the first place, but heroin is still not an end in itself either.)