The markets never cease to surprise us, even with small, but very profitably calculated ingenuities at the micro levels of our everyday life. One of such "innovations" jumped out at me recently from Slovenia, when I learned that on the menu of some restaurants there is a product roughly named: water delivery service. And that product/service costs a whopping 3 euros. Therefore, it is not about bottled still water, but about charging for the delivery of jugs with the so-called with ordinary tap water.
What kind of fora is it about? Certain regulations of the European Union limit the possibilities for charging for tap water because there are pressures from citizens' initiatives in European countries according to the European Commission. They demand that water is officially treated as a public good, and not a commodity that is exclusively sold. Also, in countries where public water supply infrastructure and water quality are still at satisfactory levels, a significant number of restaurant guests do not mind consuming tap water. So some restaurateurs, constrained from several sides, came up with a way to circumvent/deceive such regulations. If the space for treating water as a commodity product has already been narrowed, then it is not impossible to charge for the service. Anything, including water delivery.
The practice, in my opinion, is disgusting and I will always suggest that we avoid restaurants that practice such a thing. But there is obviously a business assessment and calculation that such a practice will not bring them negative publicity that would exceed the earnings achieved in this way. However, we cannot be surprised, let alone surprised, by such a business idea. It is appropriate to place it in the context of a long history of commodification and marketization. And that history shows us how the processes of transformation of general goods into market goods - or the "great transformation" of society into the market, as Karl Polany called it eighty years ago - went back several centuries of capitalism. It started from resources such as land and labor, through classical mass industrial products, towards today's collection of ideas, knowledge and information, but also very intimate personal values such as feelings, experiences and/or experiences. When we put the problem in such a perspective, it becomes naive to expect that such valuable, and qualitatively already well-developed resources such as clean water or air, will not enter into the interest-profit calculation of actors in capitalist markets.
We grew up with the conviction that water and air are fundamental resources in the domain of human biological rights to life and basic existence, but knowledge of the past tells us that there are no guarantees that it must necessarily remain so. After all, we have been clearly hinted that many wars in the near future - that future, let's not be fooled, has already begun - will be fought precisely over the mentioned resources that mean life, and which are greatly endangered due to the continuous destruction of capitalism.
Bonus video:
