Mutual Funds - Stay for the Long term???

A posting I made on the Cowboy Junkie website:
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",,,generation of financial gains have been wiped from the books (we're at 1996 levels), " - Stoned Immaculate

Well I can certainly vouch for that with real life personal experience.
In 1995, when my daughter turned 16, I purchased $5000(CND) in mutual funds in her name. It stayed with mainstream mutual funds. Here is the pitiful history. Yeah, that old advice of staying in for the long term certainly stinks.
$5000 - Aug 1995
$10700 - Dec 1999
$8580 - June 2007
$7870 - May 2008
$4410 - Mar 2009
Similiar calamity befell my own funds.

I am on the same page as Gloom and Doom Gainesvillebob2. Run for the hills, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
Pluck pluck pluck, pluck pluuuucccckkk!!!.