In the US, and most places, you can buy land, but you can’t buy air. What about water? Different nations treat water, water purity, and water rights, differently, but Australia is, so far, the only country that ever monetized their fresh water through private companies. In other words, it’s up for sale through the free market. What could possibly go wrong? What happened was that water shifted from a shared public resource to an investment. When big finance is involved, it matters less that everyone has the water they need, and more that a profit can be made.
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Well, that was bad enough, but Australian farmers who were doing without water learned a clever workaround that the investors couldn’t monetize. And that just caused more problems. It’s a really complicated subject, but Half as Interesting explains the mess better than anyone else can. This videois only 5:30 long; the rest is an ad. -via Digg
Source: neatorama