Cheap water
Don’t trust the label, at least when it comes to bottled beverages. The FDA has taken umbrage with certain national firms and their claims. In particular, green tea.
Green tea is probably very good for you. I can’t speak from experience; I’m a brown coffee man, myself. But if the local soft drink bottler tells you that the stuff in their containers is the “real thing”, be doubtful. In fact, the idea that a high fructose based soft drink can be made “healthier” by throwing some multivitamins into the tank just doesn’t cut it.
Over in Montreal, the citizens (or a subset thereof) have asked the city council to rethink the pricing of tap water. One of the larger soft drink bottlers pays $2 per 1000 litres of water taken from the city mains. It then wraps the water in a plastic bottle and profits, mightily. In defense of their business practice, the company isn’t doing anything wrong. Lacking in ethics, sure. Proving that consumers are silly bits, sure. Wrong, not according to Business 101 (offered at a campus near you).
In the real world, business (generically) would have a hard time rounding out the month, if there wasn’t a government spigot in the background. I’m not referring to bottled water, here. Today, the provincial government offered to pick up 40% of the tab for a new “multi-purpose arena”. That’s shorthand for a new house for a professional hockey team, that might be available for the occasional Metallica concert in the off season.
The first numbers being bandied around for the arena looked like 400 million, from here, which means that the provincial offer covers 180 of the shortfall. Tap the federal gang for another pocketful of change, and the investment by local business starts to sound like a a good business deal. For the taxpayer, twice or thrice tapped, not so much.
