NASA Revenue Stream From The Wealthy

This was first published in August 2013, but like food and water, this article never goes out of style.

There's not enough money on this planet for some of the wealthiest of the wealthy, who are also the greediest of the greedy, and often the most ruthless of the ruthless. NASA could fund some of its operations by selling spaceship rides, because the greediest of the greedy are going to want to see if there's gold or some other valuable substance out there in the great somewhere. Since they don't need money, a better thing would be if they devoted their lives to helping others far less fortunate than themselves, but whether they could EVER do ANYTHING without wanting financial reward to try to satisfy their insatiable egos, is a question to which I'm afraid I already know the answer. Don't fall for their patriotism acts either, as the only insignia they support is this one, "$$$." As to any religious claims, their lives are devoted to their true religious book; that is, to their bank book.

We all know that at times there are true shortages of various products. In the last couple of years, abnormally heavy rainfall in some parts of the country damaged some crops, like the peanut crop, for instance, which drove up the price of these American favorites and the derived peanut butter, although it appears prices have now been declining. Then there was tremendous drought in parts of the country, which affected a number of crops, which in turn affected meat prices.* We may complain, but I think most people understand some of this. The thing I've noticed, as I'm sure you have, is that we're paying more, or the same amount, but for smaller quantities. I just bought a jar of seasoned salt. It was the same brand I've been using, but when I picked it up, I thought, "Why does this seem to be different?" Well, when I got home, I looked at the almost empty jar I still had, and at the new jar, and it was the same price, but for about an ounce less.** I look at eggs, and they're all so old, I'm beginning to wonder if you can get fresh eggs anymore, without some connection to a local farm. So you get old eggs, but they don't want those prices to come down to try to move them faster, until they've virtually hit the expiration date, which is sometimes two months after the eggs were packed! So help me, some eggs are so old, I cracked one and a chicken flew out. 

Anyway folks, something is going to have to give eventually. Widening income disparity is going to bring about another crisis, as the wealthy interests can't keep charging us higher prices when incomes for the poor and middle class are stagnating, or actually declining in many cases. Some of the wealthy reactionaries want to take the country way back in time to keep control of it, as they did up until the 1930s, although of course, they don't want to go back to when many executives made 20 or 30 or 40 times what their workers made, instead of today's executives who make hundreds of times more than the average worker. Remember too, the larger the percentage of income that goes to the wealthy, the less money that goes into Social Security and Medicare. Why? Because contributions to these two programs stop at about $110,000. Income above that amount is not subject to paying into Social Security or Medicare. You see, there are lots of problems that stem from income disparity, but they aren't going to tell you that. Selling NASA space trips sounds better and better, especially since the greed of some of these folks is out of this world.

* As most people know, grains of various types, including corn, are often used to feed animals. When the cost of grain rises, the farmers/ranchers have to pay more to feed their livestock and poultry. Put simply, this increases the price of the meat from these animals, or for products from animals, like eggs or dairy products. Most of these meat/agricultural products are on commodity markets, where the overall prices are set, but many of these products are also subsidized by the government, usually by what are called "price supports." Subsides for such products goes back about a hundred years to a time when there were literally millions of American farms and something like a quarter to a third of Americans either lived on farms or were directly tied to agriculture in some way. The terrible state of American agriculture in the 1920s was one of the causes of the Great Depression, as so many Americans were linked to agriculture, including banks, which collapsed in record numbers in agricultural communities. Today, as with many other businesses, there are far, far fewer farms (see note), and the percentage of Americans living on or tied directly to agriculture now "appears" to be in the single digits. The thing is, with prices determined on commodity markets, that means, like it, not like it, the wealthy are setting prices. Surprise, surprise! (Note: It's a bit difficult to find a reliable number for farms in the U.S., although I didn't exactly wear myself out trying to find such a number, either, but as compared to the millions from the days of the 1920s and 1930s, the number "appears" to be in the hundreds of thousands now, but that likely counts consolidation; that is, big farms bought up smaller neighboring farms.)

** In my younger days, there was a little quip about the rock salt companies raising their prices like ten cents a bag (a dime was worth far more back then than today's dime), because the salt mines raised salt thirty cents a ton. Get it? If not, the point was, salt went up thirty cents a ton (2000 lbs.), but the price of a bag of rock salt went up a dime on a 5 lb. bag! You do the math.

WORD HISTORY:
Stream-This noun goes back to Indo European "sreu," which had the idea of "flow." This gave Old Germanic "straumaz," which meant "flow, flowing water, current of water." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "stream" (pronounced stree-am), meaning "flowing water, a current;" thus, "stream." This then became "streem," before the modern version. The verb developed from the noun in the 1200s. The other Germanic languages have: German "Strom" (also used for electrical current), Low German Saxon "Stroom," Dutch "stroom," Frisian "stream" and "streamke," Danish and Norwegian "strøm," Icelandic "straumi" and "straumur," and Swedish  "ström."