Why is gasoline cheaper than bottled water?
Answer:
Gas would be even cheaper too if it weren't taxed. In most states it is taxed 54 cents a gallon! If I was in the middle of a desert and had a choice of a gallon of gas or a gallon of water I would take the gas---so that I could fill my car's gas tank and drive to a store to get bottled water. I bet Bob here would take the water and die of heat stroke.
It isn't. If gasoline was cheaper than bottled water then there would be more people buying alot more gasoline.
Supply and Demand. That sets the price for everything in an unregulated economy and provides for the maximum efficiency of capital. Economics 101.
Because the price of gasoline doesn't include a few indirect costs, like dealing with global warming or fighting unnecessary wars in the Middle East. Include things like that and you'll find it's unaffordable.
Gasoline is cheaper than water. Given the demonstrated price of a twelve ounce bottle of water by the question asker (which is fairly cheap) the water is $ 0.07 per ounce.
Given that gasoline this summer has been in the $ 3.00 per gallon price range, this equates to a cost of $ 0.02 per ounce ($3.00 divided by the 128 - the number of ounces in a gallon)
Yet bottled water is the leading soft drink seller per FOX news reports I have seen, outselling soda.
And we don't hear people screaming about the cost of water do we?
My last water bill was $13.25 through the public water supply district. I used a little over 1500 gallons of water for wash, cooking, watering the lawn, etc...This equals about 192,000 ounces of water. at a cost of $ 0.000069 per ounce.
Just by switching to water from the tap americans can save a great deal of money and at greater convenience and ultimately the same water quality. Some folks won't believe it but most bottled water is tap water from public drinking water systems. Both are safe to consume and are high quality. One is cheaper than the other.
Additionally in order to get the final product to you, petroleum requires more work and processing to get it to you than bottled water does. Petroleum must be located, pumped from the ground, most of the time it must be shipped across the ocean and then it must be refined and again shipped to a location for you to buy it.
Water doesn't. At most bottled water is shipped to your nearest grocery store from a stateside bottler. And public water is so easily obtainable that all you have to do is turn on your water tap...
So why does bottled water cost more than gas and why aren't we all screaming about it.
Even with the taxes demonstrated by one answerer the cost is still higher than most bottled water. And don't forget that those taxes fund the roads you drive on. Eliminate the taxes and you soon won't need the gas because the roads won't be driveable...
I second the report on where bottled water often comes from. Talked with a supplier of "premium" bottled water over in LA...they bottle it fresh off the city water main. Biggest cost is the fancy label!!
And with a fancy label, persuade folks to buy it! Profits are enormous, more so than selling Carbon Credits...Mr. Gore went into the wrong business!!
And it is a matter of what the market will bear, I get my "bottled water" when I have guests who do not like the hardness of the water from my well for 30 cents a gallon in the store machines in most grocery stores around here, bringing my own clean jug.
Can't buy gasoline for anywhere near that...it is about 10X as expensive right now, even tho they have drilled now and have oil reserves in the ground nearby for 300+ years already, and we have local refineries. Still paying $3/gallon!!
So I guess it depends on what water you want from where, and how fancy the label needs to be!
Not going to switch my beverage from water to gasoline!! Wish I could persuade my car to switch!!
There's a sucker born every minute.
It isn't in UK, have you seen our fuel prices. Just under a pound per litre
What do you expect. Gasoline tastes terrible. No one would want to drink it.
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