Should Water Be Privatized...Nestle's CEO Seems to Think So

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

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Easy for these greedy (and rich) CEOs to say that water should be privatized, owned by the rich, and the rest of us either pay them, or do without. What do you think?

http://earthweareone.com/nestle-ceo-water-is-not-a-human-right-should-be-privatized/

Reminds me of the people who want to privatize national forests/parks in the United States. The rich will own them, and the US citizens will no longer be able to enjoy them. Luckily I'll be dead long before that happens. :mad:
 

If this is true, I'll never buy another Nestle product.

Oh wait, I don't anyway. Their chocolate sucks.
 
Although I'm against corporate ownership/control of the basic necessities & utilities someone has to do it. Maybe not on a corporate/conglomerate scale but someone has to do it day in day out. Businesses conduct business day in and day out. And yes the private sector frequently can run things better than the government or even a utility company. Utilities just like the government can get bloated and/or develop an attitude of 'what are you going to do, where else can you go'.

It's up to the state utility regulators to rein in the corporate profiteers of the utility services. The problem is many of these regulative agencies are in bed with the corporate utilities rubber stamping just about anything they want to do. It's one thing to bring in the private sector when the public sector fails or costs to much but to bring in the private sector for profit is another. The local governments and public should always retain a large degree of control since the utilities are there for the public benefit and they conduct business and have their own infrastructure on public rights of way.

The Nestle mindset is no better than big pharma wanting to patent basic life/ body components like genes. There's an unwieldly sense of entitlement which is part profit, part power and mostly narcissism.

Always pay attention to the business of any utility. Any time a utility wants to merge with another utility advise your representative NO. Always make sure the utility and consumer agencies in your state are made aware of every issue possible.
 

WhatInThe said:
Although I'm against corporate ownership/control of the basic necessities & utilities someone has to do it. Maybe not on a corporate/conglomerate scale but someone has to do it day in day out. Businesses conduct business day in and day out. And yes the private sector frequently can run things better than the government or even a utility company. Utilities just like the government can get bloated and/or develop an attitude of 'what are you going to do, where else can you go'.

It's up to the state utility regulators to rein in the corporate profiteers of the utility services. The problem is many of these regulative agencies are in bed with the corporate utilities rubber stamping just about anything they want to do. It's one thing to bring in the private sector when the public sector fails or costs to much but to bring in the private sector for profit is another. The local governments and public should always retain a large degree of control since the utilities are there for the public benefit and they conduct business and have their own infrastructure on public rights of way.

The Nestle mindset is no better than big pharma wanting to patent basic life/ body components like genes. There's an unwieldly sense of entitlement which is part profit, part power and mostly narcissism.

Always pay attention to the business of any utility. Any time a utility wants to merge with another utility advise your representative NO. Always make sure the utility and consumer agencies in your state are made aware of every issue possible.
Click to expand...

Business has the same propensity for mismanagement & shoddy performance as any govt agency.

But they have the added greed motive & profit maximizing incentive.

Turn control of any commodity over to big business & you'll see the price of it rise steadily.

Check out the price on the gas pump next time you fill up & ask yourself what it was ten years ago. Then try telling the oil company that you're too poor to afford their product, but that you need it to live & ask them to give it to you for free. See what they tell you.

Hint: same thing they would if they owned the water.

The very idea of private ownership of water is as absurd as private ownership of the air.

Which may not be far behind.
 
Good post,MrJim.

Just so glad Im not going to be here when or if it happens.

Nestlé in the US Nestlé, one of the largest food corporations in the world, is also in the water business, leasing or owning 50 spring sites throughout the US.[SUP][16][/SUP] However, in many places where Nestlé operates, they have unlawfully extracted water from aquifers,[SUP][17][/SUP] engaged in price-gouging tactics,[SUP][18][/SUP] and polarized communities.[SUP][19][/SUP] For example, in Colorado, over a period of a few years, Nestlé spent a large amount of money negotiating a water deal with the three-member Board of Chaffee County Commissioners and with the Aurora City Council, while buying land in the areas near where the Arkansas River runs. Close to 80 percent of the county’s 17,000 residents opposed the deal,[SUP][20][/SUP] mainly because environmentalists (citing Nestlé’s detrimental impact in communities where they already operate) raised alarms about the potentially devastating consequences for Aurora City’s watershed and nearby wetlands.[SUP][21][/SUP] After a 7 to 4 vote of approval by the Aurora City Council and a unanimous agreement by the Chaffee County Commissioners, over the next decade Nestlé will extract 650 million gallons of Arkansas Valley water so that every day they can load 25 trucks with 8,000 gallons of water, drive 120 miles to a bottling plant in Denver, and fill millions of plastic Arrowhead Springs water bottles to be sold in the western US.[SUP][22][/SUP]In addition to being targeted by locals who want control of their water sources back, Nestlé is also at the epicenter of the growing bottled water controversy. The company dominates nearly a third of the lucrative US bottled water market[SUP][23][/SUP] with seven domestically-produced subsidiary brands (including Arrowhead Springs, Calistoga and Poland Spring)—making Nestlé a key contributor to one of today’s most significant environmental threats. That is, US consumers purchase about 28 billion bottles of water every year, but recycle only about 23 percent of the plastic petroleum-based containers used for water or soda. The rest end up polluting roadsides, landfills and oceans, and leach toxins into ecosystems while taking about a millennium to degrade.[SUP][24][/SUP]
 
MrJim said:
Business has the same propensity for mismanagement & shoddy performance as any govt agency.

But they have the added greed motive & profit maximizing incentive.

Turn control of any commodity over to big business & you'll see the price of it rise steadily.

Check out the price on the gas pump next time you fill up & ask yourself what it was ten years ago. Then try telling the oil company that you're too poor to afford their product, but that you need it to live & ask them to give it to you for free. See what they tell you.

Hint: same thing they would if they owned the water.

The very idea of private ownership of water is as absurd as private ownership of the air.

Which may not be far behind.
Click to expand...

I mostly agree but knowing people who worked for utility companies as staff and as a contractor sometimes familiarity breads contempt. That contempt comes from where else can they(the customers & company) go. I guarantee you there is A LOT less down time, loaf time or slow time as a contractor. I've seen utility unions laugh at the company use of contractors until they realize not only will they lose their job to them but they can actually do the job. You look at any big construction job for an utility and you'll usually see numerous contractors along with actual utility company employees.

But again it comes down the state utility regulators or in Colorado's case their land and resource management staff to control of if not stop Nestle's or any other companies profiting from public resources or 24/7 use of public infrastructure.
 
MrJim said:
Business has the same propensity for mismanagement & shoddy performance as any govt agency.

But they have the added greed motive & profit maximizing incentive.

Turn control of any commodity over to big business & you'll see the price of it rise steadily.

Check out the price on the gas pump next time you fill up & ask yourself what it was ten years ago. Then try telling the oil company that you're too poor to afford their product, but that you need it to live & ask them to give it to you for free. See what they tell you.

Hint: same thing they would if they owned the water.

The very idea of private ownership of water is as absurd as private ownership of the air.

Which may not be far behind.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, as absurd as it is, there are those out there that will try....read a little about a Texan by the name of
T. Boone Pickens trying to cash in on the dwindling water supply.
 
Water is privatised in England; although there have always been some private water companies for a long time before that.
some people are metered, as I am, so you pay for water used, and a percentage of that for sewerage.
water is free in Scotland, and still under public ownership; maybe the weather and small population contributes to that.
 
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