Public water fountains are "unfair competition" to corporate business

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

Every drinking fountain in every public park, recreation area and building across Orange County will be shut off this summer, according to an out-of-court settlement with a business group that charged in a lawsuit that the thousands of free-water outlets constitute unfair government competition with the private sector.

"Every public drinking fountain is a taxpayer-financed monument to big government’s intrusion into one of the most basic aspects of our existence: the human need for water to survive," says Philyer Poquettes, president of the Orange County Business Council (OCBC), which filed suit against every city and county agency that heretofore provided even one drinking fountain at public expense. "The free water that springs from these spigots is wasteful, unfair and insulting."

"The human race got by without public drinking fountains for most of its millions of years of existence, and to suddenly say that a man cannot get his own drink of water is to diminish that man," asserts Poquettes, 39, of Laguna Niguel, who recently got into the bottled-water business with a local brand called Aliso Creek. "As a businessman in the beverage industry, I’m both offended and injured because our tax dollars are used to support drinking fountains, which in turn diminish the market for products we sell."

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/00/30/news-w2.php

[NYC]

1. I can't believe this isn't the Onion.

.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

3. Post-Irony Republicanism

I thought it was too. Don't know what to make of it.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

7. It's bullshit..it is from March 2000..look at the date

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/00/30/news-w2.php

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

9. I've heard these arguments on DU not to mention FR

I have heard people make points pretty much just like this one - how far off can we be? Okay, the tongue id system is a bit much, but really how could you tell?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

13. I could tell because I know water fountains are in OC, I live here

and this article was timely to a big scandal with the OC water board.

The wars of this century WILL be over privatized water. I simply said the article was crap.

THis isn't how they will do it. They will do it the same as they have done with electricity. That is exactly what they are doing now.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

23. Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water

it is already happening ...this is NO joke

A MUST READ!
The world's water supply is fast falling prey to corporate desire for the bottom line, the authors argue (Barlow chairs Council of Canadians, a public advocacy group; Clarke is the director of the Polaris Institute of Canada). Indeed, "the human race has taken water for granted and massively misjudged the capacity of the earth's water systems to recover from our carelessness," the authors write. Even if that's a hard statement to prove, the authors marshal an impressive amount of evidence that corporate profits are increasingly drinking up precious water resources. In some countries, water has already been privatized, leading to higher rates of consumption and depleted resources. And in other places, poorer residents actually pay more for water than their richer neighbors. In the meantime, Pepsi and Coke's sales of bottled water are taking water away from municipal supplies. The authors cogently argue that water a basic necessity should be treated differently from other commodities and not placed into private hands

Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water
by Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke

[lazarus]

2. This has to be a joke

I mean, check out this last paragraph:

According to Poquettes, the ongoing development of "smart machines" would also allow people over 21 to purchase alcoholic beverages through technology that would recognize their previously registered tongue print. The robbing or vandalizing of these machines would be raised to a felony with mandatory sentencing, says Poquettes.

[blackcat77]

4. Pretty sure it's satire

But these days, who can tell for sure.

[rock]

16. You can't tell for sure

The miracle of the bush*sucks misadministration.

[shanti]

5. wtf??

so what is one to do if they have no money and there's no drinking fountain? get it from the bathroom sink at the local shell gas station??

[depakid]

6. You got suckered-

Note the date of the publication....

April fools!

[regnaD kciN]

11. Also, check out the name of the plaintiff...

...Philyer Poquettes. (Must be related to Seymour Butts...)

[depakid]

15. Ha- missed that...

I got suckered by one these April fool jobs in Discover magazine once. Something about a newly discovered carniverous rodent that lived in tunnels under the ice in Antarctica and fed on seals and penguins. I was so impressed that I e-mailed the online version to a couple of friends, along with a few pithy comments. Douk!

[Eloriel]

8. The human race did NOT get by without freely flowing water

either in rivers and streams, which are too polluted now for the most part to drink out of, or wells.

This is simply outrageous. I'm speechless. They'll be after commoditizing the AIR next, these fascists.

Eloriel

[w4rma]

10. Spaceballs (n/t)

[prolesunited]

12. I think you may be right

That would explain why they are in such a hurry to pollute it. ;-)

[AntiCoup2K4]

14. They already have!

Try finding an air machine at a gas station that's not coin operated these days.

And aren't their oxygen bars in California??

[Cheswick2.0]

17. this one almost got me

but if you don't think the day is coming when some corporation tries to control water like they control oil... well I don't think you are going to like the 2020s much.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. this is a phucking joke right?...tell me this is parody please...SOMEOINE!

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

20. maybe, maybe not

welcome to bizarro world!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

22. IT is a parody and is NOT true...

[uptohere]

19. damn, this is one of my pet pieves !

I think that public water fountains are the most important service that government provides and it pisses me off no end that they're being shut off, torn down or otherwise removed from existance.

When I was a kid every playground had several of them and kids got enough water at recess. Now my kid gets headaches from dehydration because there is insufficient water available.

You should NOT have gotten me started on this ! I'll probably be ranting for days !

Now whats that county website ?

later

[Generic Other]

21. Aliso Creek? Isn't that a sewage drainage outlet?

<snip>"The human race got by without public drinking fountains for most of its millions of years of existence, and to suddenly say that a man cannot get his own drink of water is to diminish that man," asserts Poquettes, 39, of Laguna Niguel, who recently got into the bottled-water business with a local brand called Aliso Creek.<snip>

Very funny.

I wonder if we will still be laughing someday when multinational corporations based in the Middle East own all our water rights and refuse to let us have ANY unless we pay?