Quote Originally Posted by Renton View Post
Any resource that isn't free is scarce by definition. It's a matter of degree, and the degree is essentially the difficulty or cost with which to extract and distribute it. It's difficult to extract and distill oil compared with drinking water. But using public means to distribute a lesser-scarce resource like water still causes major problems that wouldn't exist with private means. These are observable, for instance almost no public water in the world is potable outside the U.S. (and maybe western europe?). And in the U.S. its getting less and less potable. In the hands of competing private entities, tap water would quickly become potable, assuming there were a market for it to be. And it would almost certainly come at a cost that would eventually be less than public water.
Your point about potability is very good, actually. I wonder why it's true though. I mean, are you saying that Pierce County tap water is unacceptable in any other counties? Why? I understand how a private company that distributes water for profit would have incentive to keep it potable, but I feel like the reason many don't trust the market is because they don't make the connection between how that incentive is inherently created