Need we explain why? Because they’re not lost, waiting to be rediscovered. They’re not missing in action, to be repatriated after the fighting stops. Instead, they’re dead. Gone forever.

There have been 7.2 million jobs lost since recession began. Many of these jobs were Bubble Age jobs. Millions of people, for example, earned their money in ‘housing.’ They were putting up houses in the sand states…or building granite countertops…or selling, flipping, financing the houses. Those jobs are gone forever. Never again in our lifetimes are we likely to see such an explosion in the housing industry. Sure, people will still build houses…and do all the other work involved in the traditional housing industry. But it will be only a fraction of the industry it was in the 2002-2007 period.

There were also all the jobs involved in selling things to people who didn’t need them and couldn’t afford them. Labor was needed at every step of the way – manufacturing (perhaps in China), shipping, stocking, retailing, fixing, and financing the stuff.

And don’t forget all that mall space…and all the trucks…and all the other things that supported the over-consumption of the Bubble Age.