Did you know that bottled water in the United States is a $15 billion dollar industry? That’s about the same size as NASA’s budget ($17.6 billion).
Sit back and think about that.
We’ve grown a business segment that simply did not exist 30 years ago to one that’s half the size of the movie industry, complete with “water sommeliers”—and it’s based entirely on something that, in 1970, the rational answer would be “The drinkin fountain’s over there, kid.”
(Cue the pure capitalists saying, “Bully for us! We saw a market niche and served it. Look at the wonder of the modern market system.”)
(Cue the pure socialists saying, “What an incredible waste! We’ve sucked billions of dollars out of the population for no real reason!”)
The truth is, of course, somewhere in-between. But consider. For 15 billion dollars, we could have:
- 90%+ of NASA
- 150 Mars Pathfinders
- 1.5 space elevators (from the 2008 Space Elevator Conference)
- A 3850% increase in the NSF’s funding for nanotechnology research
- A 300% increase in national funding for cancer research
So what’s the point of all this? Maybe no point. Maybe to get you to think a bit before you reach for that nonrenewable plastic bottle, happily leaching its gender-bending chemicals into your drink. Or maybe to illustrate that the system is full of inefficiencies—and full of opportunities for smart people to redirect some of these monies for more interesting things.
If this helps you look at some of the silliness we take for granted today, and decide if you want to participate in it, then this little article has done its job.
January 29th, 2009 / Comments Off