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Happy Labor Day! Honestly, I am without words to fully express my frustration with many who cannot seem to appreciate the role "radical" workers played in shaping our labor policies of today. Workplace safety, overtime pay rules, non-discrimination and sexual harassment laws, eight hour days and forty hour work weeks did not come about from corporate generosity but from the blood, sweat and toil of American workers fighting to unionize and bring about a sense of fairness for American workers. THIS is the reason to celebrate Labor Day, as it is the ONLY day Americans set aside to appreciate everyone of us that work for a living in order to provide a decent life for themselves and their families.
One problem is the working class also happens to be the poorest class, simply unable to afford lobbyists to influence public policy like big corporations can. I mean, why is it that "Tax Reform" always seems to revolve around tax cuts for companies with little left for actual breaks to the working class? Why is it that "job creation" is always the emphasis by our politicians while workplace safety, decent wages, benefits and job-place equality are somehow always painted in a negative light as "job killing" (claimed also to be a part of a "Leftist Agenda")? Yet, without the working class, we would have no America. Labor literally built this country (with immigrants - documented or not). Yes, I am an entrepreneur. Yes, I am a capitalist. Yes, I believe in a free market. But I also agree that without the American worker, corporations would innovate nothing, produce nothing, service nothing and add nothing to the economic stability of our country.
So what gives when politicians either ignore American labor or exploit it for ideological gain? When will the American Working Class remember that in order to effectuate real change, they must collectively participate in elections - not to support policies ignoring the plight of workers but to demand policies supporting them instead? Thus far the "jury is still out" on that front. One day I can hope they will wake up and realize, the benefits they currently take for granted were not obtained freely from big business, but demanded by the working class. And to attain better wages and benefits the fight must continue. The best avenue for this fight? The ballot box. One can only hope working Americans wake up to this fact and get out to vote!
As Charles Montesquieu once wrote: "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." Have a great week!
One problem is the working class also happens to be the poorest class, simply unable to afford lobbyists to influence public policy like big corporations can. I mean, why is it that "Tax Reform" always seems to revolve around tax cuts for companies with little left for actual breaks to the working class? Why is it that "job creation" is always the emphasis by our politicians while workplace safety, decent wages, benefits and job-place equality are somehow always painted in a negative light as "job killing" (claimed also to be a part of a "Leftist Agenda")? Yet, without the working class, we would have no America. Labor literally built this country (with immigrants - documented or not). Yes, I am an entrepreneur. Yes, I am a capitalist. Yes, I believe in a free market. But I also agree that without the American worker, corporations would innovate nothing, produce nothing, service nothing and add nothing to the economic stability of our country.
So what gives when politicians either ignore American labor or exploit it for ideological gain? When will the American Working Class remember that in order to effectuate real change, they must collectively participate in elections - not to support policies ignoring the plight of workers but to demand policies supporting them instead? Thus far the "jury is still out" on that front. One day I can hope they will wake up and realize, the benefits they currently take for granted were not obtained freely from big business, but demanded by the working class. And to attain better wages and benefits the fight must continue. The best avenue for this fight? The ballot box. One can only hope working Americans wake up to this fact and get out to vote!
As Charles Montesquieu once wrote: "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." Have a great week!
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