I agree that people who regularly drink bottled water at home are generally suckers because there are very few places in the country where a reasonably cheap water filtration system won’t do the trick. If you buy bottled water that gets delivered to you then you are almost certainly a sucker. but suckers rarely change their minds because people call them a sucker.
They never do it if they get called a sucker the way AB is doing it.
I haven’t clicked through to the thread, and Amateur Barbarian is off my radar, but…
I assume some people do fall for it. Otherwise marketing budgets would be smaller or nonexistent. Hyperbole aside, I find such claims to be unremarkable.
I quoted your point in full, but I’d like to note that a Brita pitcher, with 1 filter included, sells for less than $20 at Amazon. Ah, I’ll spread the love and link to a $10 Walmart model: Robot or human?
Filters last about 2 months and can cost less than $5 each. I understand that the profit margin on them is nonetheless enormous.
Generally speaking, I don’t see a problem with pushback against big Corp. Ignorance fighting and all that.
Ok, I’ve read posts 15, 25 and 68 referenced in the OP and I don’t have a problem with them. Amateur Barbarian has wisely bowed out of this thread. I’ll volunteer to defend his posts until I get bored. Which might be soon!
The Cafe Society thread title asks, “Bottled water- Is it really worth it? (Scam or not)”. AB says it’s a scam. I find it hard to understand why such a stance is inappropriate to the thread. Now I suppose if I was taking his POV, I might have added some leaveners and softeners. But most posts here lack that sort of stuff.
Again, if the OP doesn’t think that marketing affects behavior, then why are there marketing departments?
Also with regards to, “Why the fucking hell are you so bent out of shape over how other people choose to spend their own fucking money?”, the answer is because the OP asked whether bottled water is a scam. AB is arguing that it is, along with some colorful hyperbole. So what?
Full disclosure. I ordered a pizza that came with a free soda. I asked for water. They handed me a bottle when I would have accepted an empty cup. But whadya going to do?
It’s not a matter of his stance but his tone that is offputting.
To be honest, I got a sense of that after I dove into thread … and after I wrote my post. 
:o
I’m willing to double down though. There’s nothing wrong with anti-marketing rants in the appropriate thread. Which that was. And marketing isn’t identical to capitalism. In Britain for example there’s a lot of marketing but it isn’t quite so inane as the stuff in the US. Bottled water isn’t a bad case study.
I concede that AB might lack a certain perspective on his subject matter. eg:
They exploit certain cognitive peculiarities of the human psyche. Some of them are rationalizable (investment in advertising signals that the seller cares about its reputation). But mostly they are an exploit. But exploits are baked into humanity and are unique to one economic system or another. It’s difficult to draw appropriate policy conclusions from this, unless you are yammering for more education. And in that case, a lower key might be appropriate.
It is true that market systems encourage a race to the bottom or at least a race to a regulated baseline. Companies without marketing departments trend towards unsustainability. You can’t just pretend that a better system is obvious, because it really isn’t, given even a modest amount of thought.
My take is that buying bottled water is a dubious activity and morally suspect in the absence of greenhouse gas fees. Once those are put in place though, buying bottled water becomes a consumer choice like any other. Not that I would expect the industry to be destroyed by rational CO2 pricing.
I meant not unique to one economic system or another. :smack:
[QUOTE=Damuri Ajashi]
I agree that people who regularly drink bottled water at home are generally suckers because there are very few places in the country where a reasonably cheap water filtration system won’t do the trick. If you buy bottled water that gets delivered to you then you are almost certainly a sucker. but suckers rarely change their minds because people call them a sucker.
They never do it if they get called a sucker the way AB is doing it.
[/QUOTE]
Bingo.
**
Measure for Measure,** I don’t have a problem with AB or anyone else for saying bottled water is a scam, or with anti-marketing rants. The OP of that thread wanted opinions and got 'em, but even with people disagreeing things were civil until AB started getting snide. I didn’t pit bottled water haters in general or anyone else on the “it’s a scam” side.
A few people thought things were getting too harsh for Cafe Society so I made this pit thread to bitch him out about his tone, plus I like writing pit threads.
And I find the whole “I’m a Certified Expert who has read tons of source material… but I’m not going to share my credentials/ sources with you” annoying beyond belief, especially here, where you get asked for a cite if you say today is Monday.
I think it’s despicable that he didn’t at least defend himself.
Eh, that’s a little strong. At least now I know to mentally file him under “blowhard” and not worry about what he says too much.
Yeah, I guess that is what’s best. It just seems like he is on here a lot, and not defending his words, makes the rest of his posts/comments not valid. I hope I don’t ever need to get pitted, but shall that day come, I would at least defend myself.
He is too busy watching TV while drinking bottled water.
To each their own. Personally, I probably wouldn’t bother.
Too many pigs. If those few whose opinions I’ve come to respect chime in, I’ll read and digest and maybe adapt. Everyone else…meh.
Speaking of AB’s tone, check out his, smug, arrogant, obnoxiously coy, CT-like ranting on Big Data in this thread. Starting at post 6.
I just read that whole thread, I don’t think he is completely wrong. He is an asshole though. If he talked down to people less and made his points a tad bit more concise I think his words would weigh more.
I didn’t say he was completely wrong about it. Frankly, I couldn’t give two shits about “Big Data” or Loyalty Card purchase tracking. But it’s just what you said about him talking down to people and not forging a cogent argument for his points. So condescending and snooty. Besides, his theories on all this make him sound like a conspiracy nut. He uses a lot of words to say and conclude almost nothing… just implying a vague sinister undercurrent to it all.
I got that feeling too. I wouldn’t mind a link to that paper he is writing.
Fuck off! He doesn’t watch TV, he has Netflix! Commercials are for rubes!
Are you implying that Netflix is practically the same as TV. Cuz it’s not! Except that it totally is.
He’d rather pay the $10/mo for Netflix streaming than watch TV for free and put up with some commercials (which you can fast-forward through if you DVR it, like 98% of the world). And we’re the suckers?*
*Except I have both Xfinity and Netflix.
Wait till he finds out how TPTB track users and posts on these boards. Its how they caught the Unibomber and found out where Osama bin Laden was staying.