Last days

At work today it was one of my co-worker's last day. We're all contractors here, so we have limits to the length of time we can get. There seems to be about a 3 month changing of the guard period where all the "old guys" (the ones who's contracts are soon to expire) start to leave one by one, to be replaced by the fresh ones. Its a very sad ordeal to observe. From my perspective now, I am seeing it as the fresh new guy, coming in to a new place. I can only imagine what its like to have to leave, after working for a year with the same guys, getting to know them and learning together. I've seen seven of these guys go, and seen the replacements come in. I was the first of the new guard. Some even had to *train* their replacements. This seems like a repulsive thought. Its like training your assassin. Once you've dumped all your knowledge onto them, you get the ax and are tossed out onto the street.
So today was the last of the "old guys". As he walked around saying good-bye to all of us, I noticed his eyes were bloodshot; it looked as if he had been crying. When I saw this, a full grown man with the evidence of tears in his eyes, it was as if I smacked into a brick wall. How difficult it must be for him to leave such a great group of people, and how terrifically unfair it is of the company to use people in such an inhumane way. I know already that we the contractors put in an incredible amount of work. We dedicate nearly all of our waking life to working our ass off for this company, so they can continue to thrive, grow and make money. We keep this company functioning from day to day. Without us lowly "Desktop Support" techs, PCs and workstations would be breaking and no one would know how to fix them. And all these managers in their silly meetings would get no where. And all the happy little engineers with their logic schematics would come to a grinding halt. Without us, the entire company would just stop. And yet we get jack shit for it. Sure we get a base hourly wage, but that's about it. We get no hint that maybe this company is willing to invest in me like I'm investing in it. We get no recognition for how vital we are to the company. And the people in charge don't care. They don't want to make a rock-solid team of desktop support employees. All they care about is lowering expenses and increasing profit. Its sickening. And it makes me really hate this company. Plus it makes me feel like shit. I get to do the full work-load of a regular employee, and get none of the benifits for it; stock options and such, but I don't really care about stock options. What's worst for me is that I feel like I have no future at this company, so why should I try at all to make things better. Why should I contribute new ideas and make the workplace a better place to be? All I'm going to get out of it is a "thanks for working with us. Good luck."
My thoughts on this are very dis-organized right now. I'm not sure exactly how or what I should be feeling about this. Hopefully as I mull it over it will solidify into something more coherent and organized. I simply can't get past the disgusting lack of respect that's apparent here.