You may have noticed that the people who like to tell you how to live your life (read: “liberals”) are turning bottled water into the next Big Bad Thing.
There is a familiar pattern here: An interest group — usually with a name starting with “The Center for …” — puts out a pseudoscientific report identifying some harmless, enjoyable, convenient product as the Big Bad Thing. There is “data” showing how many billions Americans spend each year on the Big Bad Thing and how really, really bad it is is for “health,” “the environment,” “the children” or whatever.
Then, the media repeats the story endlessly until politicians decide to “do something” which generally means the Big Bad Thing is taxed into oblivion or simply banned outright. And thus passes another simple pleasure from life.
This process has gotten much easier with the advent of global warming hysteria. Now, anything that results in a single molecule of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere qualifies as a Big Bad Thing.
Bottled water is the latest target — see stories here, here and here. Bottled water is “bad” because it takes energy to package it and truck it around. It’s “bad” because Americans like it so much they spent $11 billion on it last year.
The people who like to tell you how to live your life say you should drink tap water instead. Tap water is “free” they say — conveniently forgetting about the billion-dollar infrastructure that supports it. And tap water is “safe” say the same politicians who told us our bridges won’t collapse.
I live in Lawrence, where about once a month, what comes out of the tap looks like Coca-Cola. Even on a good day, Lawrence water tastes terrible. So while I bathe and cook with Lawrence water, I drink bottled water.
I like bottled water. It tastes good. I have more faith in a private company assuring its purity than I do in government assuring the purity of municipal water. It’s my money. I’ll spend it as I choose.
The public scolds aren’t going to change my behavior. Let them move on to the next Big Bad Thing.
