Water vs Soda

I have a lot more posts that I will try to get to later today, but I just had to post about something that struck me really odd today.
In the 1980's fortunes were made getting people to buy things that had been previously- free. One HUGE example of this is water. Water used to be free you could get it from anywhere and no one would think about charging you for it, then we went to special "bottled water" which truth be told most of them aren't any different from what you get out of the tap.
Growing up soda was a real treat, or something extra. I grew up in a large family with a mother who tried to make sure we ate relatively healthy. When we went to a restaurant, you always ordered water instead of soda as it costs less and it is better for you.
Well today I took my kids to the air show on base. (More about that later.) While there we got some lunch (it had taken an hour just to get on base and who knew how long we would be). While looking at my choices of what to eat I knew that we are going to need a drink (amazingly the sun came out today and it was getting warm). So I look at what's being offered. Soda-$1.00. Water-$2.00. I sat there in my mind saying, "Healthy or cheap, healthy or cheap?" Since when did soda become cheaper than good old fashioned water? This is insane. Soda won out as I was short on cash and didn't know if I would need more later, but no wonder we have an obesity epidemic. It costs too much to be healthy!