Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
Labor Day. A federal holiday, a day off for the proletariat, and an annual holiday that claims to celebrate the dignity of being a member of the working class. Bar-B-Ques, relaxation, and the American version of the socialist celebration of Mayday, but on a different day than the one in May...you know, to cover its communist tracks in the sand.
Socialism was on an upswing in the 1800s. Karl Marx's theory of a socially fair government, considering the abuses by manufacturers, was embraced by the working class. And out of that embracement, and the frustration of poor working conditions for meager wages, labor unions rose up.
The inspiration for the first American Labor Day came from an alliance between the American Federation of Labor (AFL), craft unions, and local central labor federations in 1882. Waves of strikes followed lasting through the middle of the 1890s, reaching a crescendo that called out the police, and ultimately the army, to control the situation. The Pullman Strike, led by future Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1894, was crushed, and Debs was imprisoned for his involvement. The problem was being pushed to a breaking point.
In the Northeastern United States the unions and federations had traditions of summer holidays, and the government decided a day for labor, where beer drinking and family fun was the plan of the day, would help quell the unrest. Shortly after the end of the Pullman Strike, Democrat President Grover Cleveland rushed a bill recognizing Labor Day through Congress. The Democrats had been bruised by the fact that they were largely behind calling in the police and army, and needed a way to mend fences.
Not a single elected official in Congress voted against this measure.
President Cleveland chose the September date in order to set the American holiday off from European Mayday. An AFL resolution of 1909 declared the first Sunday to be the proper Labor Day, and eventually all States and the District of Columbia affirmed the holiday status for their residents. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The act moved several federal holidays, including Labor Day, to Mondays, and Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of September ever since.
Labor Day is supposed to be a celebration of the worker, and in that celebration the laborer is rewarded with a special day off for his labors. Tradition has added cook-outs, trips to vacation spots, and just about anything else you can throw in the mix. For some, Labor Day even marks the end of summer. For socialism, Labor Day is the one day of the year that Marx's claim of wage slavery and class struggle is recognized in America.
Labor Unions, being a part of the mix when it came to bringing about laws to protect the workers, existed for the purpose of collectively representing the interests of the workforce, bargaining with employers in order to improve the rates of pay and other conditions of employment. The right of workers to form unions has been an important part of our history. But these unions have abandoned their original intent, and have become political entities and money laundering operations for the Democrat Party. They are too liberal, too corrupt, or too authoritarian over their members.
Today's unions are aggressively supported by the leftist commie Democrats, and the politicians use their influence with labor leaders to force rank-and-file union members to support socialist causes and left-wing candidates financially, despite the fact that those members may strongly and unequivocally oppose those causes and candidates.
In addition to the Marxist impact that unions wield, they have also adversely affected our economic system, demanding rates of pay, benefit packages, and lifetime pensions from corporations that are ultimately unsustainable when it comes to maintaining such demands over the long run. These benefits for the workers force companies into financial difficulty. Rather than recognize the problem as being of their own doing, unions push for more pay and more benefits, until finally the host collapses under the weight of the persistent attacks by the parasitic labor unions. In the end, however, that is the goal. The private industry is the enemy in a Marxist construct, so pushing a privately owned company over the cliff financially is simply par for the course, and moves America even closer to its, according to the purveyors of the whole thing, eventual communist condition.
Government labor unions, like SEIU, have even become thuggish strong-arms of the Marxist Democrat Party, using their muscle to influence the vote, and to bully any opposition to progressive policies.
Now, as the socialist policies following the sub-prime mortgage culture, and doubled down during the COVID manufactured crisis, has collapsed our economy; and as heavy spending in Washington is counted in the trillions of dollars rather than the billions, especially with the new Biden Administration, through which they are efficiently and effectively wrecking our economy, Labor Day has a bittersweet aura about it. Not only is a high unemployment rate the new normal, but people don't even want to work. Despite the climb of wages even for entry-level jobs, government assistance and a promise of a government-sponsored universal income have left the younger generation in a position of being unwilling to go get a job, and perfectly comfortable at home with their parents. Corporations are finding themselves in deeper trouble under the onslaught of the collective bargaining agreements forced upon them by the liberal labor unions, and the reality that they have to do to keep who they have because a new workforce is unwilling to participate.
So, today, socialism on Labor Day is being celebrated as the country continues its collapse under the back-breaking weight of the labor unions, and the hard left socialist policies of the Democrat Party. And yet there are people out there celebrating the madness. Celebrating the rise of big government socialism in this country.
Historically, liberalism, wherever and whenever it is tried, fails; ultimately, in the long run, the producers will fall into a failed eventuality, leaving he shelves empty and the consumers wondering what happened.
Labor Day, while a socialism-influenced day for the workers, could become something else if only we were willing to make it so. We could be using Labor Day to celebrate America's greatness, or even exchange it for September 17 (which is Constitution Day) so that we can celebrate our history as one being populated by rugged individualism, hard-working folks who have been self-reliant and who have been utilizing our free market to achieve a better life through their labors, and opportunities.
In the Northeastern United States the unions and federations had traditions of summer holidays, and the government decided a day for labor, where beer drinking and family fun was the plan of the day, would help quell the unrest. Shortly after the end of the Pullman Strike, Democrat President Grover Cleveland rushed a bill recognizing Labor Day through Congress. The Democrats had been bruised by the fact that they were largely behind calling in the police and army, and needed a way to mend fences.
Not a single elected official in Congress voted against this measure.
President Cleveland chose the September date in order to set the American holiday off from European Mayday. An AFL resolution of 1909 declared the first Sunday to be the proper Labor Day, and eventually all States and the District of Columbia affirmed the holiday status for their residents. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The act moved several federal holidays, including Labor Day, to Mondays, and Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday of September ever since.
Labor Day is supposed to be a celebration of the worker, and in that celebration the laborer is rewarded with a special day off for his labors. Tradition has added cook-outs, trips to vacation spots, and just about anything else you can throw in the mix. For some, Labor Day even marks the end of summer. For socialism, Labor Day is the one day of the year that Marx's claim of wage slavery and class struggle is recognized in America.
Labor Unions, being a part of the mix when it came to bringing about laws to protect the workers, existed for the purpose of collectively representing the interests of the workforce, bargaining with employers in order to improve the rates of pay and other conditions of employment. The right of workers to form unions has been an important part of our history. But these unions have abandoned their original intent, and have become political entities and money laundering operations for the Democrat Party. They are too liberal, too corrupt, or too authoritarian over their members.
Today's unions are aggressively supported by the leftist commie Democrats, and the politicians use their influence with labor leaders to force rank-and-file union members to support socialist causes and left-wing candidates financially, despite the fact that those members may strongly and unequivocally oppose those causes and candidates.
In addition to the Marxist impact that unions wield, they have also adversely affected our economic system, demanding rates of pay, benefit packages, and lifetime pensions from corporations that are ultimately unsustainable when it comes to maintaining such demands over the long run. These benefits for the workers force companies into financial difficulty. Rather than recognize the problem as being of their own doing, unions push for more pay and more benefits, until finally the host collapses under the weight of the persistent attacks by the parasitic labor unions. In the end, however, that is the goal. The private industry is the enemy in a Marxist construct, so pushing a privately owned company over the cliff financially is simply par for the course, and moves America even closer to its, according to the purveyors of the whole thing, eventual communist condition.
Government labor unions, like SEIU, have even become thuggish strong-arms of the Marxist Democrat Party, using their muscle to influence the vote, and to bully any opposition to progressive policies.
Now, as the socialist policies following the sub-prime mortgage culture, and doubled down during the COVID manufactured crisis, has collapsed our economy; and as heavy spending in Washington is counted in the trillions of dollars rather than the billions, especially with the new Biden Administration, through which they are efficiently and effectively wrecking our economy, Labor Day has a bittersweet aura about it. Not only is a high unemployment rate the new normal, but people don't even want to work. Despite the climb of wages even for entry-level jobs, government assistance and a promise of a government-sponsored universal income have left the younger generation in a position of being unwilling to go get a job, and perfectly comfortable at home with their parents. Corporations are finding themselves in deeper trouble under the onslaught of the collective bargaining agreements forced upon them by the liberal labor unions, and the reality that they have to do to keep who they have because a new workforce is unwilling to participate.
So, today, socialism on Labor Day is being celebrated as the country continues its collapse under the back-breaking weight of the labor unions, and the hard left socialist policies of the Democrat Party. And yet there are people out there celebrating the madness. Celebrating the rise of big government socialism in this country.
Historically, liberalism, wherever and whenever it is tried, fails; ultimately, in the long run, the producers will fall into a failed eventuality, leaving he shelves empty and the consumers wondering what happened.
Labor Day, while a socialism-influenced day for the workers, could become something else if only we were willing to make it so. We could be using Labor Day to celebrate America's greatness, or even exchange it for September 17 (which is Constitution Day) so that we can celebrate our history as one being populated by rugged individualism, hard-working folks who have been self-reliant and who have been utilizing our free market to achieve a better life through their labors, and opportunities.
I get it. We enjoy Labor Day as an opportunity to take a break from the daily grind, and get a little back for the hard work. We spend the entire year working for a fair day's pay for a good day's work, while hoping to keep most of what we produce. Then, on Labor Day, it's like we get a quick thank you, and a full belly at a Bar-B-Que.
Every working day of every year we go out and make a living. We do what we can to produce enough wages for our family to survive. Taking care of one's family is one way to exercise our individualism. Despite the economic dire we seem to be surrounded by we want to do what it takes to produce good wages through good labor. I, myself, have been a military man, a banker, a salesman, a financial adviser, a city government worker, a construction worker, a truck driver and a constitutionalist. Each job I have had was not my dream job (except maybe what I do now with the Constitution, including two radio programs and classes I teach).
As a fierce individual, I was as a younger man always willing to change careers, even if it meant doing something I was not real hip about.
Every working day of every year we go out and make a living. We do what we can to produce enough wages for our family to survive. Taking care of one's family is one way to exercise our individualism. Despite the economic dire we seem to be surrounded by we want to do what it takes to produce good wages through good labor. I, myself, have been a military man, a banker, a salesman, a financial adviser, a city government worker, a construction worker, a truck driver and a constitutionalist. Each job I have had was not my dream job (except maybe what I do now with the Constitution, including two radio programs and classes I teach).
As a fierce individual, I was as a younger man always willing to change careers, even if it meant doing something I was not real hip about.
It's a part of doing whatever it takes, being responsible, and being a productive American.
Throughout history we have have proven over and over that hard work, and self-motivation results in a successful life. It is because we live in a free country based on individual liberty that we have been able to pursue the various opportunities such a system has to offer.
The Democrats, however, disagree. President Barack Obama once said, "What if the person has no bootstraps to pull on?"
President Biden questioned what an American is, and even went so far as to say that nobody could define it.
The Democrats, however, disagree. President Barack Obama once said, "What if the person has no bootstraps to pull on?"
President Biden questioned what an American is, and even went so far as to say that nobody could define it.
Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s, after visiting the United States from France, was amazed at how well American Society operated without government influence. He saw a society of rugged individuals who used only the local government to worry about local issues. The federal government stayed out of the picture, keeping itself occupied with only its authorized powers that largely deal with external issues, or items that concern the protection, promotion, or preservation of the union.
How could it be that Americans were so capable of surviving while refusing assistance from the government?
The socialists who have infiltrated American Government does not understand this mentality. They believe that nothing ought to occur without the government's consent, or administration. They believe government alone can create jobs out of thin air, and that our jobs should be performed not because we desire to make a better life, but because our contribution to the collective is beneficial to the common good.
Government does not create any jobs that have any positive impact on the economy. The liberal left commie Democrats claims we must increase consumption, as we let go of manufacturing and production. We must get people to buy things, and let China put together all of our products. But, from an economics standpoint, what good is increased consumption without an increase in production? Business owners create jobs, and goods. Sometimes individuals create their own jobs with an entrepreneurial spirit. Large corporations also create jobs. When there is production, employment increases, and then consumption naturally rises, but, hopefully, with the purchasing power aimed at American goods. Don't get me wrong, trade with other countries is a good thing, but total consumption without any production is a recipe for disaster. Especially, when you have a government determined to simply regulate, collect money, and then redistribute those monies to people who, thanks to the hand-outs, don't wish to participate in the production of any goods or services.
How could it be that Americans were so capable of surviving while refusing assistance from the government?
The socialists who have infiltrated American Government does not understand this mentality. They believe that nothing ought to occur without the government's consent, or administration. They believe government alone can create jobs out of thin air, and that our jobs should be performed not because we desire to make a better life, but because our contribution to the collective is beneficial to the common good.
Government does not create any jobs that have any positive impact on the economy. The liberal left commie Democrats claims we must increase consumption, as we let go of manufacturing and production. We must get people to buy things, and let China put together all of our products. But, from an economics standpoint, what good is increased consumption without an increase in production? Business owners create jobs, and goods. Sometimes individuals create their own jobs with an entrepreneurial spirit. Large corporations also create jobs. When there is production, employment increases, and then consumption naturally rises, but, hopefully, with the purchasing power aimed at American goods. Don't get me wrong, trade with other countries is a good thing, but total consumption without any production is a recipe for disaster. Especially, when you have a government determined to simply regulate, collect money, and then redistribute those monies to people who, thanks to the hand-outs, don't wish to participate in the production of any goods or services.
The private sector is what encourages economic growth. The free market makes an economy healthy and wealthy by encouraging profit, and innovation. That is how America became the richest nation in the world in the first place. We did it with free market capitalism. If we abandon what works, as the Democrats are pushing for, people starve, people die, and the shelves are empty.
As the economy suffers under the socialist grip of the Biden Administration, and their iron grip on America through Marxist policies largely driven by the COVID scamdemic, we are seeing raises and benefit increases in the government sector while the unemployment rate continues to rise along with the rise in prices and the collapse of the supply chain. Gas prices are high, food prices are rising dramatically, and when Americans are at risk the Biden Administration has shown its willingness to leave them to be slaughtered by foreign adversaries who hate American Liberty, and our prosperous past.
If I was to celebrate Labor Day it would be to celebrate the hard worker because it is the individuals who toil day in and day out in the private sector that makes the economy grow, not some faceless bureaucrat somewhere on Capitol Hill, or a confused President who can't find the door. It is the taxpayer, not the tax collector, that makes our republic great. It has never been government. It has never been bureaucracy. The U.S. Constitution was designed to limit the powers of the federal government for a reason. The founding fathers knew if too much power was obtained by the government, people like the socialists of the Democrat Party would take possession of the government and try to change the American Form of Government.
On Labor Day, if we are to celebrate it, let's celebrate individualism, hard work, and the real America.
On Labor Day, if we are to celebrate it, let's celebrate individualism, hard work, and the real America.
Instead, what we see is a celebration of the working class; a fist-raised determination to kill what America has always stood for so as to enable a rise of a communist revolution in America.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Amen and Amen!
ReplyDeleteYour ideas a spot-on. Labor Day is merely a day off for workers. No one really understands why we have it anymore.
Doug is correct RE: Labor Unions TODAY.
ReplyDeleteThere are several problems/concerns that I also have with these labor unions in the 21st century. Unions:
1) have a thuggish history. They (especially during strikes) have a long history of beating up opponents (especially people brought in to replace them)
2) are primarily government employees and this means that they are often involved in government corruption.
3) are dirty! Politicians to help them be elected and once in office these officials are on the “other side of the negotiation table” and they pay them off for the support by paying them ridiculous amounts of money and benefits, all of which are paid for by the taxpayer.
4) When “working” union members are constantly trying to find excuses to make their work as slow, inefficient, and expensive as possible. Working along with unionized people is a constant pain. They have all kinds of rules about what they will and won’t do. They have all kinds of rules about how long it has to take. They make not only themselves but also everyone else around them inefficient and ineffectual.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteYet even with these valid concerns Doug's not a historian, so he will be forgiven if he's forgetting the problems some average American workers found themselves in the late 19th century. We were reminded of it in a song:
You load Sixteen Tons and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St Peter, don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store…
That song “Sixteen Tons” was a smash hit in 1955, selling half a million copies in a month. Why did a song with such depressing lyrics resonate with people, and what did it mean?
We'll get back to that in a moment
What was the context before the strikes? Pullman publicized his company town as "a model community" filled with contented, well-paid workers.
Sounds nice. According to the Pullman museum website:
Rents were calculated to achieve a 6% return on the cost of the housing; however, the investment never achieved more than 4 1/2%. Housing in Pullman was somewhat more expensive than in other parts of the city, but the quality of the housing was far superior to that available to workers elsewhere. All Pullman homes had indoor toilet facilities and running water -- advantages unheard of in other working class areas of the city. Garbage was collected daily; the buildings and grounds of the entire town were maintained by the Pullman Company. The quality of company-owned and maintained housing was uncommonly good for worker housing...
Part 3
ReplyDeleteYet another website stated: In some situations, company towns developed out of a paternalistic effort to create a utopian worker’s village. Churches, schools, libraries, and other amenities were constructed in order to encourage healthy communities and productive workers. Saloons or other places or services believed to be negative influences were prohibited.
Although economically successful, company towns sometimes failed politically due to a lack of elected officials and municipally owned services. Accordingly, workers often had no say in local affairs and therefore, felt dictated. Ultimately, this political climate caused resentment amongst workers and resulted in many residents eventually losing long-term affection for their towns; such was the case at Pullman, Chicago.
The town however was not a model; the homes on the outskirts of town were shabbily built — some without any kind of plumbing. The rent for these houses was also about twenty-five percent higher than normal for the area. In addition, in order to work for Pullman, one had to live in his houses. The workers formed a committee and on May 7 went to Pullman to ask to have the rent lowered. On May 7 and 9, they were flatly refused. Three of the committee members were then terminated. This caused the workers to declare that they were going to strike, and on May 10, 1894 they walked off of their jobs. Then on May 11, 1894 the Pullman Plant closed.
The Pullman workers, also were affected when the work force was slashed from 5,500 to 3,300 and wages were cut by an average of 25 percent (over time) which affected some unfortunate individuals. For example:
After the stock market crash of 1893, Pullman cut jobs and wages, but he didn’t cut the rent or the various taxes his workers were forced to pay. Since these were automatically deducted from the worker’s wages, people began receiving paychecks for literally pennies. One man had worked as a mechanic for ten hours a day for twelve days and earned $9.07; his rent on the same two-week period was $9.00, leaving him with $.07, one hour’s reduced wage with which to try to buy food in over-priced stores. Needless to say, a system like that was unsustainable, but "Pullman’s greed was steadfast" as one writer put it.
Part 4
ReplyDeleteI'm myself pro-business today but no telling how what I'd believe back then, especially if my 8 year old son had to work. It's interesting Doug didn't mention 19th century child labor anywhere in his article.
A September 1906 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine recounts a story once told of an old Native American chieftain. The chieftain was given a tour of the modern city of New York. On this excursion, he saw the soaring heights of the grand skyscrapers and the majesty of the Brooklyn Bridge. He observed the comfortable masses gathered in amusement at the circus and the poor huddled in tenements. Upon the completion of the chieftain’s journey, several Christian men asked him, “What is the most surprising thing you have seen?” The chieftain replied slowly with three words: “little children working.”
By the turn of the 20th century, the labors that the children of the working class performed were varied. In rural areas, young boys, some reportedly under age 14, toiled in mines, sometimes working their fingers literally to the bone, breaking up coal."
So let's go back in time to that period-joining a union was illegal in Pullman, but 4,000 workers went on strike anyway. May 1894,
"A wildcat strike." Eugene Debs of the American Railway Union, (ARU) stepped in to lead them. The company refused to recognize and bargain with the ARU, so Debs called upon workers all across the country to stage a boycott of Pullman railroad cars. While and jail, Debs read writings by Karl Marx and other socialists and after he was freed in 1895, Debs became America's most popular socialist leader (according to Ohio State University webite).
According to website: ushistory.org
Debs was "not originally a socialist, but his experience with the Pullman Strike and his subsequent six-month jail term led him to believe that drastic action was necessary..."
Couldn't a similar thinking be said of today? What about those conservative voters who marched in Washington D.C. to show their frustration on Jan 6th. How many of them today are still unfairly locked up?
We must ask ourselves When is drastic action neccessary?"
Part 5
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what Doug wrote -especially his words "the free market makes an economy healthy and wealthy by encouraging profit and innovation".
Yes of course! 100% but he's mistaken if he believes it was simply due to this alone (from the 1920's onward in America) as he wrote: "That is how America became the richest nation in the world in the first place. We did it with free market capitalism".
Not entirely Doug. You need to look a bit deeper RE: "America being a 20th century financial power" with your financial co-host Alan Myers.
"Every other World War I belligerent had quit the gold standard at the beginning of the World War I. As part of their war finance, they accepted that their currency would depreciate against gold. The currencies of the losers depreciated much more than the winners... Yet even the mighty British pound lost almost one-fourth of its value against gold. At the end of the conflict, every national government had to decide whether to return to the gold standard and, if so, at what rate.
The American depression of 1920 made that decision all the more difficult. The war had vaulted the United States to a new status as the world’s leading creditor, the world’s largest owner of gold and by extension, the effective custodian of the international gold standard..."
Fast forwarding...
The USA wasn't the top dog "financially speaking" until around 1890 or 1920's. Guess who was in first place for 90 years? The country with the Great wall.
You'll be impressed watching this video how long the USA remained the top dog since 1890 until sliding into 2nd spot financially to China in the last few years. Watch the Chinese 21st century financial streak and you'll be reminded of a rocket.
"Top 20 Country GDP (PPP) History & Projection (1800-2040)"
https://youtu.be/4-2nqd6-ZXg
Today Doug in the 21st century we are no longer the richest.
What about wealthy countries like Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway? At least the USA still ranks high.
Doug, I agree with your financial belief system which echoes John Stossel's column: "Capitalism makes us better off"
Stossel's column goes on to say: That's a very important point. No capitalist gets our money unless we voluntarily choose to exchange it for whatever he's selling. "Capitalism is the only system that gives people the liberty to make their own choices."
The free market, opportunities for consumers, choices. These are areas where we certainly agree!
https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/john-stossel-capitalism-makes-us-better-off/article_0d9baa70-c268-524e-8f01-9a8658f29d7f.html
Interesting article
ReplyDelete