>>>>>Let me share with you another "little" piece of the puzzle that adds to the cost of health-care. I know many people who work as programmers, developers, DBA, (techies) for insurance companies. Each probably makes at minimum $100,000. Each, for sure, spends 50% of the time (or more) at work browsing the web, checking personal email, participating in political discussions on UT <g>, checking their investment portfolios, etc.
>>>>
>>>>OTOH, nobody else does that, only programmers.
>>>>
>>>>>Could be a huge savings if we cut some of them <g>.
>>>>
>>>>Just one huge savings?
>>>>
>>>>(Really, nobody so far was able to explain to me how did "savings" become singular)
>>>
>>>Yeap. I should have left out the article "a" in front of savings.
>>
>>I once googled "a huge savings" and "a huge saving" (with quotation marks), and the number of hits was around 4:1 for "it's a singulars".
>
>I do believe that "savings" is singular. It just does not sound right if you say (or I hear) "this is a bank where I keep my saving." It has to be "savings". I think "saving" is an adjective but not a noun. But I don't really know what I am talking about <g>
Still... the 20% of texts on the web where the singular is used can't be all wrong.
Savings are the heap of individual savings you made, one saving at a time, and forgot them on your savings account (i.e. salvational account, or account for savings). That's "the savings", as a heap. But one at a time, like shooting programmers who visit UT/chatter during work, would be a saving each time. At least so it is to my ears. But maybe we should let the natives decide this, eh? I'm just puzzled and it (may I be allowed a translated serbian phrase), "unravels my ears".