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Did it ever occur to you that if high profile people like Mayor Silva and (of all people) Penn & Teller weren't informing the public that bottled water is a scam that nobody would know it? To this very day you will find people claiming that bottled water somehow tastes better than tap water despite the fact that 95% of bottled water actually *is* tap water.
Bottled water is probably the greatest marketing coup in the history of the United States. They're selling you *water* which comes out of taps *free* for more money/ounce than gasoline (until recently.) Go free market!
For reference, the bit about Penn & Teller I'm referencing comes from their Showtime channel show "Bullshit." One episode was entirely dedicated to bottled water and it culminated in a scene where they got a high end restaurant to provide a bottled water menu similar to the traditional wine menu. The patrons all agreed that the most expensive water was by far the best, and were then shown video of Penn filling all the bottles with a garden hose.
Dan, you are right once again...when are you running for presidnet...maybe mayor?
Sorry JD, I've had too much fun in my life to pass muster as a politician.
Actually bottled water does not have to meet the same quality standard as most cities. Huge scam.
Water out of the hose bib is safer than what you buy in a bottle.
how is suburban sprawl, fuel consumption, etc. caused by the government? please elaborate.
Chris, urban sprawl has, in most communities (including Albuquerque and RR) been heavily subsidized by local governments. In Albuquerque this has traditionally come in the form of allowing homebuilders to build whole new without having to pay for the infrastructure (electrical, water, sewer etc) to serve the area, so taxpayers end up picking up the tab. Most recently some elements of the city government and SunCal (which bought the gigantic Atrisco property, think of another whole Rio Rancho and you'll get a general idea of the land area) are trying to pass through a TIDD which will allow SunCal to collect and keep taxes from its residents directly.
Gasoline has been massively subsidized in this country from the 70's on through military interventions in the middle east and elsewhere.
Dan, i agree but i don't think that is what mario had in mind. After all, measures such as PGS which seek to recitfy the implicit subsidization of sprawl are also acts of government- which I'm sure he opposes. So, government allowed sprawl by not governing, by not seeking to channel development more sensibly than just leaving it to the market. But that is different than saying that the "govt caused sprawl." The market caused sprwal, gov't allowed it, and now gov't is trying to rectify it. You and I agree but I don't get what the author of the post is saying- but then again his depth of analysis always leave a lot to be desired.
Commenting by HaloScan
