I would like to say good-bye and good riddance to the lost decade of 2000-2009.

It started with the dot con crash and ended with the financial Economic Armageddon implosion.

I sometimes believed a look of jaw drop would be permanently etched on my face as I watched towers implode, votes not counted, hanging chads, invasions based on obvious lies, the corruption of Congress, the false data and information being put on as news, the implosion of the value of work, the real production economy and the U.S. middle class.

The decade started for me personally with a nagging question, what is this free trade stuff? It sure seems to not be what they claim. In addition I noticed increasing labor abuses of my colleagues, professionals supposedly golden, with brains oozing high IQs and accomplishment. More and more they were being treated like cattle, something on a bean counter's sheet to be dismissed, fired and displaced.

I watched all of San Francisco empty out, the streets lined with U-haul trucks, a modern day version of the grapes of wrath as techies, almost 50% of them, lost their chosen careers forever.

I watched jobs which required years of experience, be advertised for less than minimum wage on job boards.

I saw people denied hundreds of thousands in pay, worthless stock options and not a damn thing happened, when supposedly stiffing someone on their paycheck was about the most illegal thing an employer could do. Many were body searched on their escort out the layoff door.

I watched my Congress, supposedly there to represent me, give billions to the rich and idolize corporate executives who were busy working against the U.S. national economic interest and wanting to labor arbitrage the entire U.S. middle class.

I saw insane trade deals, rhetoric galore with very obvious negative results on the actual deficit.

I watched absolute economic insanity and the United States I used to know was disappearing before my eyes.

Gone was a feeling of solidarity, that most Americans were equal, that the United States did not have strong social and class divisions and of course our government put it's workers and people first. Like the wind, the entire system of the New Deal era and the culture of work was being dismantled and pulled away right below my feet.

What can one do, but dust off that educational background obtained just to satisfy some school Dean and start utilizing it. Pipe up, speak out, raise hell, go screaming...

After all, the thing which assisted in stopping the French Revolution Reign of Terror was Madame Du Barry.
Undignified, kicking, screaming and crying, Madame Du Barry did not go quietly to her soon to be murder before a large crowd. It made people realize they were committing the most gruesome crimes which were not justified.

So please, get involved. Stand up, raise hell, get your calculators out and dust off those economics texts from your attic. The facts are on your side. Get serious, get data focused and get your outrage on. It's only the nation at stake and that means your income, your financial livelihood, your quality of life.

I say good riddance to the lost decade, the lost jobs, the lost 401ks, the lost homes, the lost security...bye bye bad news....

The question is now what can we do to get our country back in 2010?

America don't follow the herd!

Fainting Goats

What are your thoughts and experiences of the lost decade and what is your resolution to obtain an economy that works for America?