Economy and job losses..

Like everyone else, I have been hearing news of more and more job losses in many sectors of the economy. Every morning, I get off at the Wall St subway stop; it is bewildering to see the epicenter of this mess. Trinity church continues to mightily overlook the street. Some people dressed in business suits, others in jeans and a little slumped, slowly make their way. I remember my first day at my current job. It was Sept 29, 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 777 points - the largest single day point loss in history. The next day, on Sept 30th, I had to attend a meeting on Broad St. I got off the Wall St stop around 8am and started walking along the sidewalk that leads to Wall and Broad. There were television cameras and reporters waiting to cover the news that morning. I crossed Broad St and and for a brief moment I looked to the right of me - There it stood, the New York Stock Exchange - a symbol of financial birth, might, and collapse. Weeks and months later, we have seen the consequences and ripple effect on every sector, not only in the United States, but elsewhere in the world. Greed and stupidity, bad advice and unfortunate decisions, consumerism that fed off captialism - an economy that is continuing to learn its lessons. For those who thought of their jobs as their identity, they learned a cruel lesson. For those whose spending had gotten out of control, they also learned a cruel lesson. For a poor family trying to survive every day living paycheck to paycheck given wrong advice by experts - I wish they didn't have to learn this cruel lesson. I hope that our country will survive this and I really hope people all over the world will get through this meltdown.