Monday, September 03, 2012

Let Us Now Celebrate Labor


Because it is Labor Day in the United States:

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

That's in our reality.  In the alternate reality, Eric Cantor tweets this:*

Today, we celebrate those who have taken a risk, worked hard, built a business and earned their own success.

I might be mistaken.  Maybe Cantor is not referring to  entrepreneurs in that statement but to the workers on whose backs corporations are ultimately made?  After all, GOP would like to transfer all the risks of entrepreneurship from the owners to the workers ("Right to Work" laws, lack of health insurance, lack of guaranteed annual vacations and so on).

I have nothing against entrepreneurs, by the way.  They carry out an important economic task by taking on certain types of financial risks, those which are used to justify high profits later on.  But today is not the Day of The Entrepreneur,  and workers also work very hard.  Anyone with three simultaneous jobs works hard, for instance.

Given the current lack of media coverage when it comes to workers' circumstances and rights, I really wish that Labor Day be allowed to be about workers.  At least it might remind some people about what the workers are losing in this country.

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*Thanks to trifecta for the link