No, Officer, I Swear, It's Not Water

Water is necessary for life, whether you are close to a tap or not. What is the solution? For many of us, the occasional bottle of water. Most mommies have one stashed in their diaper bags, and I keep a case in my garage for emergencies. I (and the Red Cross) consider this good common sense, but the politicians who control our major cities don't agree. That's right, folks; our government thinks we are not collectively intelligent enough to responsibly drink water. San Francisco has restricted plastic water bottles and cities such as Seattle and New York plan to follow suit.

First, let me say that drinking a bottle of water and then throwing it out is unforgivably wasteful, especially if you are doing it day after day. Yet, sometimes bottled water is a necessity. Consider school or Boy Scout outings--how do those adults provide water for thirty or more kids when far away from drinking fountains and clean glasses? What about homeless people? Plastic is in general a bad thing to buy, but if you restrict it for occasions when it is necessary, being sure to wash and re-use until the piece is worn out, then recycling it, I don't think the plastic is any worse than a Nalgene container, which is about 100 times as expensive and just as easy to lose.

The rulers of San Francisco have a long history of restricting people's freedoms without considering the consequences. As a result, it is one of the world's most expensive places to live, with horrendous crime and a homeless problem so immense that you can't even really comprehend the scope unless you have actually been there. In their quest to micromanage every aspect of citizens' lives, they have created a two class system--those who can afford these lofty standards and the insane taxes necessary to enforce them, and those who are victimized by them.

Our founding fathers would be appalled. Increasingly, our government seems to feel that 1984 is a training manual and not a horror story. This is what I worry about when others are worrying about comparably minor issues like the price of flour and whether we should subsidize preschool. Little by little, we are letting the government act like a parent, and who will protect us when that parent turns abusive? We won't be able to... we can't even decide whether to drink a lousy bottle of water.

Update: Here is a bill that may make your bottle of water illegal everywhere in the USA. Are they banning soda or juice in plastic? Nope, just water, the only liquid necessary to sustain human life.