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Comment by andsoitis | Hacker News Reader

perhaps not a problem one some people's mind, but certainly a material difference:

utilities prioritize the welfare of the citizens who reside in an vote for the (local/regional/national) political apparatus VS exploiting resources with the aim of maximizing profit for shareholders

one benefit that private water companies like Perrier / Fiji Water / Nestlé et al provide to society is that they "distribute" water to locations where there's less. Or at least that what it seems like.

However, on the one hand very little of the water consumed this way is by people who do not have access to local water. Two; they try as much as possible to underpay the "community" from whence they extract the water, so that should be made more fair.

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>utilities prioritize the welfare of the citizens who reside in an vote for the (local/regional/national) political apparatus VS exploiting resources with the aim of maximizing profit for shareholders

How is this any different than any other industries that consume water (eg. farms or factories) and use that to make money? At least with nestle water, it's not a premium product so in all likelihood it isn't getting shipped across the world like Perrier is.

Incentive. Farms and factories require water as an input to fulfil some other purpose. They have no incentive to extract more water than they need for their processes, increasing the price incentivises them to reduce their consumption. In contrast, a bottled water company's revenue directly correlates with how much water they can extract. Increasing the price does not encourage a reduction in consumption since consumption is tied to revenue. In fact, if margins tighten due to price increases we might expect to see production increase, with the aim of maintaining the rate of profit.

Even without being shipped across the world, in most places, bottled water is still hugely wasteful. Multiple facilities, haulage, plastic, stores, and refrigeration to deliver something that is directly piped into almost every building.

> utilities prioritize the welfare of the citizens who reside in an vote

Not according to the rate increases in my bills. More like padding their pensions and political apparatus.

Really?

How much is your water bill per gallon of water? Now how much would that amount of water cost you purchased from an organization like Nestle?

For all the people here who like to trumpet their advanced intelligence, there are certainly a lot of triple-o stooopid statements made.

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