For the activists behind the taste test however, the growth of bottled water undermines the public's willingness to invest in the kind of infrastructure investments that could improve all public water supplies -- opening up the door in some cases to privatization of water systems by for-profit corporations. "People get in the habit of paying a lot more for their drinking water, and they say if we are paying for bottled water, there is no reason we shouldn't be paying a lot for these water services," says Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute and author of "Inside the Bottle," a report critical of the bottled water industry. The downside, he says, is increased cost. "Whenever there is a public service utility taken over by a private service the first thing that happens is that rates are jacked up."
Why do those most skeptical of corporate domination fall for this scam? Analysis is required of the fantasies of purity and of pollution that dominate so much of our public and private lives. Tap water is processed. We see it come out of the tap. It's the same water that is in our polluted toilets. The chlorine taste reminds us of that "pollution."
In contrast, bottled water creates the fantasy of natural purity. Those mountains and springs in the name and pictured on the bottles create this fantasy. The fact that the water comes from Coca Cola or Nestles can be ignored. The fantasy is a little whiff of purity in the midst of our polluted lives.
Further, buying bottled water allows the simultaneous gratification of sin and virtue. We can go into the convenience store and buy a product to consume while at the same time feeling virtuous for not falling for the inducements to buy and consume the flavored sugar water that fill the stores shelves. One act can be good and bad at the same time.
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