The Economics of Bottled Water

Last year American's spent over $15 billion on bottled water. I've often heard how stupid this is that we are spending so much money on the most plentiful natural resource on the planet. In fact, the article related to above states, "It acknowledges our demand for instant gratification, our vanity, our token concern for health. Its packaging and transport depend entirely on cheap fossil fuel."

Perhaps true but perhaps it's much more simple than that. Perhaps we just dislike risk. Every purchase is a case of risk vs. reward. As a kid no one wanted a huffy bike, so we were willing to pay a premium (by we, I of course mean my parents) for a different, "higher quality" brand. There was less risk in this. They were both made of the same metal, both had the same components, but one could have made us look "uncool" or, as I undoubtedly attempted to persuade my parents, the one was of greater quality than the other. You see, we didn't want to risk lower quality or personal gratification just to save a few bucks. How does this apply to a bottle of water? Well, I buy water for 1 of 3 reasons and I suspect most other people do as well.

1.) It is cold if I buy it from the gas station. I am paying a premium to always have access to a luxury. (Think of how many jobs this is creating, right?!?! J/k btw, isn't this an all too common defense for any type of spending? Well, it's creating jobs. It's ok when the gov't spends because it's "creating jobs" but when someone with money wants to buy something deemed unnecessary by the public it's that they are being greedy. Can't have it both ways, libs). So what is the premium for having my water cold? I don't know, it doesn't matter. In fact, it's probably a floating number dependent upon other variables (which leads me onto another political tangent. This is a prime example of why price fixing by the gov't doesn't work, because variables change. Some days it might be warmer outside so I want that cold water, some days I might be feeling more frugal. My point? economic engineering cannot work in the long run.)

2.) Prestige. That's right, I admit it, I buy bottled water sometimes because it is positively accepted among society. Sometimes I have even splurged on Fiji water just for my own vanity.

3.) Quality. We know what we are getting in bottled water. Some of us even know the different tastes of the different brands. Do you know what the water out of the drinking fountain at the SA down the street tastes like or the water out of the sink at your place of employment? Neither do I. In fact, I don't want to know because I can limit the risk of tasting bad water for a small fee (the purchase price).

All three of these reasons have to do with limiting risk. I have a near risk-less source of water available to me for a small premium. Not sure what information that gives us but it doesn't make it less true.

Religion & Politics

So at church this past week we were having a discussion regarding politics. We discussed at one point how liberty, independence, and freedom are gifts from God. I was noting how it is sad how so often people tend to forget this. So often people separate the idea of freedom and the idea of God.

This is wrong-headed and, I believe, disrespectful.

I think of it like this: imagine you were able to visit heaven for just one day. You also get to bring along several of your friends. Now imagine it's the end of your one day in heaven and Jesus brings you into the giftshop. Rather than selling you something, he gives each of the guests a special gift, something straight from Jesus' hands. I'm not sure about everyone else but if I had a gift from Jesus I would treasure it. I think of when I was a kid on vacation and getting something from the gift shop's at Disney World. Us kids wouldn't let our stupid little toys from the gift shop out of our sights....Now back to Jesus giving you something.

Here you have a gift from Jesus, he created all things and he chose to give YOU something specifically. Would you not treasure it? Would you not fight for it if someone tried to steal it?

This is freedom. God gave us this fantastic thing called freedom and what do we do with it? We allow others to take it away. Worse, most of us take it from our neighbors; even WORSE, most of those taking from their neighbors then attempt to justify the theft as being altruistic or charitable. Go back to the example of having your friends in Jesus' gift shop with you. Would you feel proud to steal your friend's gift? Would it be ok so long as you were able to convince all of your other friends that the one friend didn't actually "need" the gift God gave him? Would it be ok so long as you gave that gift to someone who "needed" it more than your friend (provided of course that you take a nominal 15% handling fee)? No, of course not, this is all wrong! It has to be a slap in God's face when he see's not only what we do to each other but also our lack of passion and caring for what He gave to us.

It is shameful the way that everyone (myself as well, on occasion) trample on another person's free will. It is likewise just as shameful that we don't stand up and take pride in God's gift to us.

I'm back.

Just a heads up to whomever may be reading this. I created this blog last year but didn't publicize it as I just created it as a means to write for myself and for future reference to my past thoughts.

That being said, I obviously didn't write much on it. Recently a series of events have inspired me to not only start writing again (admittedly almost always regarding politics, economics, etc.) but to publicize what I write. Perhaps some people will read it but even if not my original goal of capturing my thoughts will be achieved.

I would encourage anyone who reads whatever I write to comment, whether you agree or not. Thoughtful discourse is always welcome.