LDS Freedom Forum

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/15603/

Harvard University students agreed by vote that plastic single-use water bottles should no longer be sold on campus, leaving the fate of plastic water bottles in jeopardy at the Ivy League institution.

While campus administrators cannot be forced to go along with the student vote’s outcome, organizers of the ballot measure say they expect cooperation from Harvard officials, who will be lobbied by the student government to comply.

“We will be working with the administration to make sure student wishes are met,” Katrina Malakhoff, chairperson of the Harvard Environmental Action Committee, said in an email to The College Fix.

Sixty-four percent of students who voted in Harvard’s fall referendum late last month supported “ending the sale and distribution of plastic non-reusable water bottles on campus (including at Harvard cafes and Crimson Catering events) and making drinking water more accessible through the installation of additional water fountains and reusable water bottle filling stations.”

Bottled water is one of the biggest cons and scams sold to consumers in the last 20 years! Hat tip to the Harvard student body! :ymapplause:

Yes, because capitalism is bad and companies meeting a demand in the market is a bad thing. So lets legislate out capitalism.

If people want to pay for bottled water they should be able to pay for bottled water. This nanny mentality makes no sense to me.

Edit: Peoples acceptance of a nanny mentality is what I am talking about. Once it starts it spreads. I guess I don't agree with people that feel superior by mandating what others can eat and drink and society accepting it. The mentality of 'we are going to end up paying for it' is a socialists wetdream argument. Once people start thinking that way then they can promote more and more of their control fantasies.

TheLion wrote:Yes, because capitalism is bad and companies meeting a demand in the market is a bad thing. So lets legislate out capitalism.

If people want to pay for bottled water they should be able to pay for bottled water. This nanny mentality makes no sense to me.

Edit: Peoples acceptance of a nanny mentality is what I am talking about. Once it starts it spreads. I guess I don't agree with people that feel superior by mandating what others can eat and drink and society accepting it. The mentality of 'we are going to end up paying for it' is a socialists wetdream argument. Once people start thinking that way then they can promote more and more of their control fantasies.

The difference is that this is not legislation. Harvard University is a private organization, and clearly they can sell bottled water on campus even if every single student voted against it. However, their students are also their customers, it would be like customers of Wal Mart lobbying the company not to sell a certain product.

It is not nanny state, it is customer feedback which is entirely compatible with capitalism. In fact, this sort of thing is exactly how such "market forces" should play out. Same with a company supporting any agenda you don't agree with. The proper remedy is to loudly let them know that if they continue to do so they lose you as a customer.

TheLion wrote:Yes, because capitalism is bad and companies meeting a demand in the market is a bad thing. So lets legislate out capitalism.

If people want to pay for bottled water they should be able to pay for bottled water. This nanny mentality makes no sense to me.

Edit: Peoples acceptance of a nanny mentality is what I am talking about. Once it starts it spreads. I guess I don't agree with people that feel superior by mandating what others can eat and drink and society accepting it. The mentality of 'we are going to end up paying for it' is a socialists wetdream argument. Once people start thinking that way then they can promote more and more of their control fantasies.

Agreed, however, it is one of the biggest cons in modern times. When was bottled water introduced... mid '90's? And by whom? The soda companies - they simply found a way to exploit the cola-consuming public as well as conjuring up another source of revenue from a gullible society and began promoting something more 'healthy' for you. But like you said, who is anyone to stop someone else from buying 20 ounces of water for $1.50? If they wanna blow $1.50 on water, let them. By the way, by comparison, where I live, we are charged $7.20 for 1,000 gallons of fresh water. 128 ounces = 1 gallon, so if utility customers were billed $1.50 for 20 ounces of water, 128,000 / 20 X $1.50 = $9,600.00, thus, at the bottled water rate, you would pay $9,600 for 1,000 gallons of water. If that isn't a scam, I don't know what is.

I agree that it's an outrageous amount of money to pay for water and have always felt that way. Regardless, there is a demand there for it for if there wasn't bottled water would go the way of New Coke. People want it so someone is supplying them with it, capitalism at it's best. Win/win, consumers gets what they want and the company makes a profit. If someone doesn't like it they can vote with their wallet and not purchase it. Not impose a nanny paradigm on me because either people don't like it or are upset someone is making money off it. I'll spend my money how I like, thank you.

As for 'legislation' yes agreed, I thought about if I should use that word or not but lets be honest this is part of a larger pattern where some stuff like this is indeed being legislated. This is merely a ripple in the pond from that larger mentality. You are correct that it's not a "law" but it is now a rule in at least one institute of higher learning (usually liberal strong holds). Where students are trained and then sent out into the world and carry the paradigm they learned to impose on the rest of us. Yes, I attended University. Paper verses plastic is all the rage, the "environment" they say! lol, paper bags are worse for the environment in terms of energy for production and transportation than plastic bags. Some of us actually use plastic bags repeatedly. For instance, my wife and I used them as trash bags. We wasted less plastic using them than normal garbage bags. The size of our under the counter trash can is the same but we easily use twice as much plastic now to hold the trash.

Giving them a yee-haw over this only later bites us in the rear. Whether you or I like something or not when we start telling others what they can and can't have access too is imposing restrictions on freedom. Shame on anyone applauding this type of action, especially over WATER. Many people, me included prefer not to drink tap water. Now that's what these students will be left with. Mind you I am aware that plastics can give off chemicals, especially when heated, but I still prefer that over tap water.

I just don't agree, but then again I'm in favor of Freedom, not telling others how they should live. There need to be some laws, that's a no brainer, but when we are at the point we are at and charging in full steam we've lost our way. But darn the gradual whittling away of any choice sure is sexy because it's all about "good" for everyone. I hope you don't wake up with regret someday, I have and it sucks. I used to be all for this mumbo jumbo then finally saw where we today are verses where we were when I was a kid and it wasn't pretty. For every step forward we have taken 5 backwards. Our freedoms are being chipped away left and right, none of them individually appear to be a big deal but look at the bigger picture of what has been lost if you are capable.

In the meantime stay preoccupied with arguing over the little things, it's a great distraction from the bigger picture ;) Says the guy arguing over bottled water :))