You all knew this, right? It's no big secret:
Meanwhile, if you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents.
Since this is a New York Times editorial, there's also a lot of blather about how drinking tap water can save the planet as well as saving money, but the central fact is unassailable. Americans will spend money on anything -- cable TV though broadcast TV is free, ditto satellite radio -- and bottled water is the ultimate proof.