Right now, at your average local Czech Republic pub, a pint of pilsner costs about $1. Water goes for about $2.

Take all that dream-realizing, hoppy goodness in. Beer costs less than water.

But if Dr. Leos Heger, the country's health minister, has his way, the government may soon force restaurants and bars to offer a nonalcoholic drink for a price lower than drafts (sodas and juices often cost about $2, too). Which, okay, isn't exactly insurrectionary. Unless you're from the Czech Republic, which has the highest beer consumption per person and has been making the stuff since medieval times — when without alcohol, water would make you sick, and knights and nobles battled for brewing rights.

Today though, the Czechs have more contemporary concerns about Dr. Heger's campaigning. At least one tavern manager complained to this morning's Wall Street Journal that it's administrative misprioritization. There's a presidential election going on, and the nation has 7.4% unemployment — but Dr. Heger isn't running, and he isn't the labor minister, so we'll call that bluff.

Regardless, since we're on a northern-Europe price-prescribing kick the solution is obvious: Meet halfway; make water the same price as beer. Because in America, where a bar's tap water is so cheap it's free, we know what the people will pick.

Nate Hopper Associate editor Nate Hopper is an associate editor for Esquire magazine.

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