When you choose not to spend money on something you could get for free, do you feel guilty? When you find yourself at the end of the day a couple bucks richer, do you reel with the burden of it? I didn't think so. But if not, then why is New York Times scribe Alex Williams so insistent that folks eschewing high-priced hydration feel so darn guilty? ("Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful.") Personally, I don't feel guilty passing up high-falutin' Fuji while I sip my Sigg. By focusing on the guilt charge, Williams misses a key part of the story.
What Williams omits is the real outrage: Not that the pro-public water set are the new eco-nag, as she implies, but that the private companies sucking up this limited natural resource--and then turning around and charging us mightily--are getting away with it. What's worse is that what you are drinking from that Dasani bottle (or any branded water) is unregulated and therefore often no better, and indeed sometimes far worse, than what you could get out of a tap--for free.
Our friends at Food and Water Watch have launched a campaign to Take Back the Tap. Check it out here and... don't feel guilty about it!
