Labor Day Weekend

Ah! The Labor Day Weekend is finally here!!

The Queen has a pleasant smile on her face because she will be home for an extra day this weekend. The kittens are mewing about playing Diablo against each other this weekend. Myself, I'm stuck celebrating this Labor Day in a boot for the next three weeks.

Every now and then crazy thoughts pop into my head. I asked myself, "Gee I wonder what the origins of Labor Day are"? So I G**gled it and came up with this site at the Department of Labor. To say the least, I was shocked at this quote from the first paragraph of the site.

"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."

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Ok, besides the obvious bile I am currently feeling for old Samuel Bonkers Gompers. I decided to actually check his facts to see whether this Communist propoganda bears any resemblance to truth or not. Here is what I found.

According to the US Office of Personnel Management (The Human resources department of the US Government, if you will.), There are 10 federal holidays as listed below for 2006:

Monday, January 2	New Year's Day
Monday, January 16	Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 20	Washington's Birthday
Monday, May 29	Memorial Day
Tuesday, July 4	Independence Day
Monday, September 4	Labor Day
Monday, October 9	Columbus Day
Friday, November 10	Veterans Day
Thursday, November 23	Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 25	Christmas Day

If we categorize these according to Mr. Bonkers Gompers:
Holidays connected with conflict, battles...

Monday, May 29	Memorial Day
Tuesday, July 4	Independence Day
Friday, November 10	Veterans Day

Holidays connected to a single man...

Monday, January 16	Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 20	Washington's Birthday
Monday, October 9	Columbus Day

The other Holidays...

Monday, January 2	New Year's Day
Monday, September 4	Labor Day
Thursday, November 23	Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 25	Christmas Day

So then, in order for Mr. Bonkers Gompers statement to be correct All of the other holidays must be connected to some person, sect, race, or nation.

Christmas is the obvious standout. It literally is a celebration of Christ. So I might grudgingly grant his point. Though the way Americans and the rest of the Western world think about Christmas it is questionable whether this really is the case.

New Year's Day? Hhhm. Devoted to a man? - No. A sect? - No. A race? - No. A Nation? - No. Uh oh, looks like Sam falls on his face here.

What about Thanksgiving? Well it is clearly an American holiday. Truthfully, one would have to stretch pretty far to say that Thankgiving is devoted to a sect, race or nation (except the USA of course.).

According to the DoL, "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." I'm left scratching my head here. So I thought I might digress to the origins of the holiday.

Labor Day started in New York in the 1880's and was institutionalized by 1894. This was the time when unions were coming into power. As a result, I believe that the unions were trying to make a point to the industrialists of the period and were flexing their muscles politically. As evidenced from the quote from the DoL,

"[T]he Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic...[The] workingmen's holiday [idea]... spread with the growth of labor organizations..."

Demonstration. This pretty clearly classifies it as a political move, and spreading with the growth of labor organizations is the last nail in the coffin. Labor Day occurred because labor unions gained political and economic power.

The DoL site's thinly veiled attempt to glorify "the worker" is somewhat perplexing. The reality is not that the worker made America great. It is and always will be that the entrepreneurs and the innovators made America great. The unions had a place in checking overbearing business practices. But it was the spirit of the entrepreneurs that gave the worker a place to work and transformed the nation into the powerhouse that it is today. Unfortunately, though, I believe that the unions have long outlived their usefulness and should be disbanded. They are now a drag on our country. But alas, they have too much power and will be incredibly difficult to disband with the state of American politics.

I have always believed that market forces are the proper determiners of supply and demand equilibrium. Any interference by government and unions should be avoided. All employment should be "at will". But again, this requires massive changes in our political system, changes that are not likely to come anytime soon.

Anyhow, this is a pretty large digression from Labor Day. But the long and the short of it is that I like having a 3-day weekend at the start of September. Though I don't really care if we call it Labor Day, Entrepreneur's Day, or even Big Sale Day. It is still very nice to just relax with my family.

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