Great News: 20,000 Less People Got Fired Last Week

In America last week 20,000 less people than the prior week got fired and Wall Street celebrates it as the U.S. stock markets skyrocket.

Why do they think it's great news? Because it's the lowest weekly number since January, a sign it is claimed, of an economic recovery. And as markets skyrocket, Wall Street firms make big fees.

But what kind of callous, greed-driven thinking finds this to be great news? Over 15 million people in the U.S. alone have lost their jobs and thousands more are being fired every week.

In American society, when you don't work, you're nobody. You can't pay your bills, you can't support your family and you lose much of your identity and your self-esteem. Your marriage may be in jeopardy and so might your home. That ugly fate just happened to many thousands more of our fellow human beings last week.

So what does this mean to you if you still have a job? Every person who loses a job stops paying taxes and depends on the government to put food on the table and to avoid being thrown out of a home.

These people can no longer afford to go to restaurants or buy appliances, clothes, toys, vacations and other non-essentials. The U.S. economy is now 70% consumer driven, which means as they stop buying, and their numbers grow, your job may soon be at risk. It has a snow ball affect and where it stops, no-one knows.

Wall Street firms understand this. When their wild financial speculations sent them cascading to collapse, rather than face that horrific fate, they demanded and got huge taxpayer bailouts. Now they use much of that money to speculate again.

But what makes any society "great" is its people caring for one another and taking action for the common good. We need each other and when vast numbers of our brethren are suffering, we are called upon not to try to make money on their misery as Wall Street is doing, but to sacrifice to help them.

And we must recognize we are fighting for our financial survival and take dramatic action to change now. We must move fast to end the hugely wasteful government spending on weapons, wars and bailouts for they are all paid for by taxpayers.

The money instead has to be quickly re-invested in alternative energy and in other uses that serve mankind and can save our planet, as it creates jobs private industry can build upon. And it offers us hope.

These are the things compassionate people do and it is what will lead us out of the financial abyss if we are wise enough and caring enough to do it.

Dick

Update: Today (11/6/09) the jobs news grew far worse. The U.S. Labor Dept. stated the unemployment rate jumped to 10.2% from 9.8% last month. This means 15.7 million people are now jobless, 600,000 more than just a month ago! And if those who are no longer counted are included, it would now be a staggering 17.5%. This snowball of a collapsing economy is picking up speed and headed toward all of us.