I don't disagree with him. I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but at a certain point I don't feel like water should be an entitlement. If I walk into a store and ask for a glass of water, they don't have to give me anything. A lot will do it anyway, because they don't want to deal with the risk of negative PR of refusing someone a glass of water instead of selling them a bottle (mainly when they aren't getting anything but the free glass of water), but it doesn't change that fact that getting water for free = not having to prove you're worth being watered by exchanging currency you've earned.

We really shouldn't be giving away finite resources for free in any regard. I completely understand his charge for water stance, because treating it like a resource does work on a few levels. Obviously it makes him rich, and a lot of people are only going to look at that and go "That's the only reason he'd back this", and maybe so, but for our species, only allowing people who can afford to buy water to get water is better than giving it away for free. It ensures the only people that aren't dying of dehydration are the ones that are able to perform in society - work, get paid, get water.

Of course this gets interesting during a drought, because it becomes a mass existential crisis for a group of people that usually has access to water and loses access to it, and then there are companies around doing business as usual (selling bottled water) looking like villains because they're saying "We've been bottling water for a while - it's immune to a drought. But if you want it, you're going to have to buy it."

It comes across pretty rude, but that's nature. The older I get the more I realize why putting a price on everything is so important. We really can't afford to give things away for free, let alone for less than it's worth, in a lot of circumstances. Doing so just sets us up for greater problems down the line. We are eventually going to have a water crisis, pacing ourselves with how we use it and who we give it to delays how long it takes for that crisis to affect those who are better suited to weather the storm until the crisis inevitably hits.

I get that it's pretty nauseating to swallow truths like this when lives are on the line - especially if it's your life - but it is one of those realities.

This has also made me realize how important it is to have a couple flats of bottled water in storage just in case. Something I'll start prioritizing along with making sure there are batteries in the flashlight, and keeping the propane topped up.