(Marketplace) Some 30.000 people protest in the streets of the French eastern city of Grenoble during France's first major strike, which was triggered by the global financial crisis...

The mindless greed and corruption of Wall Street bankers and wealthy investors has nearly destroyed our economy and the rest of the worlds as well.

Taking advantage of the crisis, Corporations are shedding jobs and putting millions of working men and women - many of whom have given most of their lives to these companies - at risk of losing everything. Not since the Great Depression have times been this hard for working people.

Adding insult to injury, foreign nationals holding H1-B visas are being given preferential treatment over America's unemployed citizens. And corporations like Microsoft want to bring in hundreds of thousands more foreign workers! Meanwhile, hordes of Mexicans and Central American illegals pour across our borders taking what few jobs remain.

So what does the American government do? It hands out billions of taxpayer dollars in bailouts to the same criminals who ran their companies into the ground in the first place. And these bastards promptly turn around and hand out hundreds of millions of dollars in "bonuses" to one another. They were expected to help struggling families save their homes. They didn't. They didn't add new jobs. They didn't do a damn thing (except further enrich themselves, of course).

And what do the working men and women of America do? Storm the halls of power? March? Protest? Write angry letters to the editor? Nope. They stand in a field chewing their cud waiting for Uncle Sugar to come to the rescue.

The same thing is happening in France. But the French people are refusing to pay for the criminal misconduct of the monied interests. They're standing up and fighting back. All across France working people are rising up in their millions to fight for their jobs, for decent wages, for health care, for their families. For the very soul of their country.

So when you lose your job (if you haven't already) and you're living in the street because you've lost your home and what little else you might have been able to put back over the years, think about this:

The French people may not have as much as we did (and I do mean "did') but they have jobs that pay a living wage, decent health care and enough annual time off to enjoy a bit of life before they die.

Now get up off your ass and speak truth to power and if that doesn't work, stab it in the eye with an ice pick.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ---Thomas Jefferson