Labor Day-2013
(This first appeared on 9/2/23 as a letter to the editor in the Brainerd Dispatch)
Labor Day-2023
Sometimes it feels like the National Chamber of Commerce has bought the naming rights to Labor Day as in “Labor Day brought to you by the Chamber of Commerce”. Somehow, in the process the significance of labor to our nation has been lost.
We all know that the entire nation was built by labor, from erecting the actual buildings, to the infrastructure, to the manufactured goods that are produced; and then the entire American edifice is continually serviced and maintained by labor.
And what has been their reward for such exemplary work? What $10 would buy in 1950, would now cost $130. How do the minimum wage increases measure up to that? Meanwhile CEO compensation is now 400 times more than an average worker is paid. In 1965 that ratio was at 20 to 1. We can see the reason for our income inequality in this nation, on the back of worker’s pay. Meanwhile taxes have gone from progressive to regressive with corporations and the rich now taxed at a lower rate than workers.
Meanwhile, to deflect our attention from the plight of workers, we are told to celebrate corporations and business progress and attend to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the scorecard for the rich.
Our lack of attention to labor on Labor Day is the equivalent of ignoring veterans on Memorial Day, or ignoring the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July, or ignoring thankfulness at Thanksgiving, or ignoring the meaning behind Christmas or Easter.
We are breaking faith with the people who are the very heart of this nation. It is a shame and needs to be addressed and corrected.