Capitalism Run Amuck, On Steroids

Capitalism is under a lot of fire these days, grossly unfairly.  Capitalism in the US is really Crony Capitalism, which is capitalism on selfish, greedy steroids.  A very good example of this is the Nestle Corporation, specifically the North American Waters Division.

According to their website, in 2014 Nestles collected 28 million gallons of water from their facilities in the San Bernardino Mountains.  According the the website of the Courage Campaign, Nestle did so on an expired permit from the US Forest Service, and pay just $524 ANNUALLY for that water! That is not a typo, it really is just $524!!

Their permit expired in 1988, coincidentally one year after they acquired the Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water Company.  

According to the Nestles website, they are the biggest food company in the world.  They sell $4.125 BILLION in bottled water in the United States every year, and have a market share of 37.2%, which is huge!  Their brands may surprise you:

Acqua Panna, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Montclair, Nestle’s Pure Life, Ozarka, Poland Spring, Resource, Tradwinds, and Zephyrhills in the United States.  They also own Perrier and Pellegrino, and Sweet Leaf Iced Teas 

 Now, does paying $524 dollars to take 28 million gallons of water from a US Forest Service property sound in any way, shape or form fair to you?  To me, it's beyond outrageous.  To go further on the outrage scale, read the paragraph below, from Wikipedia.

This is why I say forget boycotting one food market, and BOYCOTT ALL NESTLE PRODUCTS, and see how fast they will come to the table and negotiate a fair and reasonable contract.  

From Wikipedia:  “Additionally, recent evidence suggests that representatives of the Forest Service failed to follow through on a review process for Nestlé's permit to draw water from the San Bernardino wells, which expired in 1988.^[116][117] The former forest supervisor Gene Zimmerman has explained that the review process was rigorous, and that the Forest Service "didn't have the money or the budget or the staff" to follow through on the review of Nestlé's long-expired permit.^[118] However, Zimmerman's observations and action have come under scrutiny for a number of reasons. Firstly, along with the natural resource manager for Nestlé, Larry Lawrence, Zimmerman is a board member for and played a vital role in the founding of the nonprofit Southern California Mountains Foundation, of which Nestlé is the most noteworthy and longtime donor.^[119] Secondly, the Zimmerman Community Partnership Award - an award inspired by Zimmerman's actions and efforts "to create a public/private partnership for resource development and community engagement" - was presented by the foundation to Nestlé's Arrowhead Water division in 2013.^[120] Finally, while Zimmerman retired from his former role in 2005, he currently works as a paid consultant for Nestlé, leading many investigative journalists to question Zimmerman's allegiances prior to his retirement from the Forest Service.^[118]

See Nestles own North American Water Website: 

http://www.nestle-watersna.com/content/documents/pdfs/nwna_at_a_glance_2015.pdf