Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

Have you ever taken just five minutes to contemplate bottled water? Even if you have, I ask that you indulge me for the next five, because I'll bet you've never thought about water quite like this.

One of the most profound failures of government is illustrated through the astounding success of the water purification industry - filters, purifiers, bottled water, etc. People don't trust the water that their government puts in their tap. This one mistrust is so large that we don't even see it without me calling attention to the phenomenon, but that's exactly what it is - people don't trust the water in their pipes for consumption.

This is not a taste issue, it's a trust issue. The proof is that we have a bigger government entity, the EPA, that sends us annual water quality reports which tell us exactly how much we should (mis)trust our municipalities. How scary is that? We need a big government organization to continually attempt to convince us to trust our smaller government organizations. And does it work? Nope.

But, it's heartening to see that the people, in their mistrust, turned to the only place they could get relief from government: business. Capitalism wins, government loses. Big Water is a multi-billion dollar industry primarily because people don't trust their government.

Now, how many liberals do you know that will only drink bottled water, but are unconditionally committed to universal health care? There's a winning argument against universal health care. Use it wisely.