five billion dollar sugar water

Coca-cola, riding on the image of America and the sugar in its bottled water reported better-than expected profits Wednesday. For the third quarter Coke's net was nearly $2 billion. The company has net income in well in excess of five billion dollars for the twelve months that just ended. All of that for sweetened bottled water, juice mixtures, and some, mostly citrus, fruit juices.

Ironically enough, despite promoting the image of American cool, Coke's revenues largely come from abroad. Coca Cola, for all its Americana is by and large a foreign company. Unlike its competitor PepsiCo Inc., whose profit is 70% US based, 81% of Coke's profit comes from outside North America.

Over the last four decades, Coca Cola has roamed the globe and largely displaced traditional local and healthier drinks in favor of its highly sweetened caramel bubbly and the image of success. On the home front, Coke is losing ground against its rival PepsiCo.

No wonder the world is getting fatter. So much for the image of success.