Just prior to the market "correction" I had tucked away some money in a taxable index fund (Vanguard Index 500). Yes it took a beating, but it's now worth more than the original investment. A lot of the people whose investments got hammered were greedy, stupid, or both. Remember all those Enron sad-sacks the MSM would air footage of? "I lost all my retirement savings, wah!" But if they had been properly diversified they should have only taken a 5 or 10% hit.
Your absoluetly correct. I remember one Fox News they had some eager beaver geek who was this so called expert on the Nasdaq. He was saying stay stay buy buy and the Oct before GW Bushes first win it all started to come apart. And a lot of them watched it all go swirling down the toilet.