Siphoning Money From Our Gas Tanks

The country remains in what is now being called, "The Great Recession." The price of many things have fallen, largely in an orderly manner; that is, we've not had a panic driven deflation that has sent the economy spiraling into the abyss. Of course, those stalwarts of the "investment industry," better known to me as "the sit on their ass class," have chosen to continue to extract more money from the American economy through higher oil and gasoline prices.

Every dollar siphoned from our pockets into their bank accounts means less for the rest of us to spend on things that might actually help bring the economy back. I've heard it said several times on CNBC* in the past, that for every penny gasoline goes up on an annual basis, it costs American consumers one billion dollars.** I've not heard anyone challenge that info, so I'll take it that it is pretty accurate. The best thing Americans can get out of the greedy bastards is that "it is cheaper than last year." I've been saying for a long, long time here that these greedy egomaniacs will destroy the country, and much of the wreckage is already lying around us. The "investor class" has already helped bring the country to its knees. Do they stop? Hell no! Mo' money! Mo' money! Mo' money!

Now that NASA has bombed the moon to see if there is water there, what we really need for the space agency to do is, find out if there is money either on the moon or on some other planet. If so, they'll be able to sell tickets to our greediest citizens to go there, because there isn't enough money for them on THIS planet! (A "Word History" is below the notes)

* CNBC is a cable business channel owned by NBC Universal.
** Remember, this is on an annual basis.

WORD HISTORY:
Siphon-This word, originally just a noun, traces back to Greek "siphon," which meant "tube or pipe." Greek is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the "family tree," although many words, or root words in English, and indeed in many of the Indo European languages, have come from Greek, albeit at times via Latin, or a Latin based language. From what I can find, linguists haven't been able to trace "siphon" back to some Indo European, or other, base, up to this point in time. Latin picked up the word from Greek as "sipho," as the singular form, with a long "i" sound and a long "o" sound. Latin is another Indo European language, likewise related to English further down the "family tree." French, a Latin based language, continued with "siphon," and English seemingly acquired the word from French at some point, perhaps in the 1500s or most definitely by the 1600s. During the mid 1800s, a verb form seems to have emerged from the noun, with the meaning "drawing in or expelling liquid through a tube" (often used in reference to some sea creatures with such tubes), but apparently it wasn't until World War Two that the idea of "diverting a liquid (gasoline) from one container (gas tank) to another container (a gas can) by way of a tube," developed.