• electerrific [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It's drinkable. It's just that tap water is associated with low status. "You mean, like, from the toilet?"

    I remember back in the 90s when bottled water was just taking off. There was this bottle that literally said on the label "Source: Dallas municipal water supply"

    And yet, if you poured a glass from the tap Mom & Dad would reject it. Put it in a bottle, sell it for $0.99, contaminate it with pthalates, and boom! Instant respectability.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I was raised to consider buying water when there's water in the tap a sign you were a dumbass who can't manage money

      • TillieNeuen [she/her]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Same. This did bite me in the ass the year I worked as an English tutor in France and just drank from the tap though. Oh sure, the water was safe to drink, but in my area it was so full of minerals that it made the sides of my mouth crack and bleed. Didn't get better until I started buying bottled water like all the other people I knew in that area. I thought they were being silly and bougie, but it turns out they knew exactly what they were doing. It suuuuucked hauling water back to my place from the store though. Even with the bus, it was quite a ways to walk with that much weight.

        • TraschcanOfIdeology [they/them, comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          The town I live in has very mineral-y water, to such a degree that the municipality set up a kiosk where you can get filtered water for practically nothing as long as you bring the container, and you can get it still or sparkling.

          I developed some mild tendinitis on my forearms from hauling all that sparkling goodness last summer.

          • TillieNeuen [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            It's really cool that your town offered that! I'm sorry it ended up causing an injury. I can certainly relate. I ended up switching to bringing a backpack just for the water, and using a grocery bag for everything else. Aside from backpacking trips, I've never thought more about rationing how much water I was drinking.

      • THC
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        edit-2
        2 years ago

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          • THC
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            2 years ago

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            • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              you know if where you are has safe tap water and the advice to drink from the tap shouldn't really need to be explicitly pointed out to mean "only if that's safe" which can reasonably go unsaid

              much like "cross the road" means "cross the road if there is no oncoming traffic"

              • THC
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                2 years ago

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                • TillieNeuen [she/her]
                  ·
                  2 years ago

                  I don't know how universal this is, but when I was a kid, buying bottled water was a signifier of being on a higher social strata. It was "fancy," while just drinking the tap water was for proles. But it was also known that the bottled water, though more expensive (and thus consuming it was a sign of class), was just municipal water from some other city, not fresh from some mountain stream or whatever. So the middle class looked down on the poors for drinking tap water, while we poors laughed at them for wasting money on something that was no better than what we were drinking.

                  • electerrific [none/use name]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    Bottled water like Evian and Perrier was associated with high status. From France, and everything is better from France. It's not just water, like from the toilet. It's mineral water, which is especially healthful. Plus, being seen drinking means you can afford the murderous prices, which is the point.

                  • THC
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                    2 years ago

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