WHAT LABOR DAY MEANS TO ME

LABOR DAY FLAGS

Monday, 8:30 AM.  66 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind SW, calm with occasional moderate to strong gusts.  Sky overcast but clearing after an earlier thunder storm.  Humidity 92%, barometer 29.76" and steady, predicting unsettled weather through midweek.

   Labor Day is usually seen as a celebration of Organized Labor: the rights of workers to band together to bargain for their wages and working conditions.  They did not always have those rights, and I respect the privilege and the struggle, but Labor Day means something different to me; it means the right to the fruits of my own labor, my own work, my own ambitions and my own talents.  Over the millennia these rights have mostly been infringed upon by governments that imposed unjust traditions, laws and taxes upon the common man; monarchies, oligarchies, theocracies, and dictatorships of both the right and the left.

   In my life, in order to have a job at different times, I have been forced by law to belong to at least three different unions, to each of which I had to pay dues and succumb to their work rules and their hierarchy.  Just another master.
   As for minimum wage laws, I have no particular objection to them, since I recognize them as largely irrelevant. They historically have been meant for low level entrance jobs that have far lower wages than good, well trained workers can demand in an open market; and if said minimum wages get too high they will simply destroy the jobs they were meant to enhance.

   I have worked since I was 12 years old, when I  owned a paper route, the best introduction to the business world I can imagine.  My father worked tirelessly at his own business but unfortunately died before he could accomplish his goals and before I could take his place.  My mother worked until she was 84 and would have worked until she died if she had not been mugged leaving work one evening. 
   Even though I spent my carrier in public service, I have been an entrepreneur in spirit and actuality all my life, and I continue so today.  It is in my genes.
  I see Labor Day not as a celebration of organized labor and its bosses, but rather as a celebration of the constitutional right of all Americans to the just fruits of their  own labors, and of their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
   Happy Labor Day!

TOGETHER WE CAN DO IT!