This Morning 9/3/12 Labor Day: Why Celebrate?

It has always been a mystery to me why Labor Day is a national holiday.  A little history:

It is clear that this "workingman's holiday" was originally suggested and spearheaded in 1882 by either Peter McGuire, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor or Matthew McGuire, a machinist and once secretary of Local 344 of the International Association for Machinists in Paterson, NJ.  It is not clear, however, if they were related, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were!

The first Labor Day was celebrated that year in New York City by the Central Labor Union.  News spread throughout the next few years among unions across the nation and in 1885, legislation to create a Labor Day holiday was adopted in five states: Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Colorado and New Jersey.  By 1894, over 30 states had adopted bills celebrating the first Monday in September as Labor Day.  The U.S. Congress passed an act that year on June 28 recognizing this as a national holiday.

A day of rest for the nation is an important concept.  But let's face it, too many people are out of work right now to deem it a celebration!  Even though 163,000 non-farm jobs were added to the economy in July, 2012, there were 137,500 lay-offs last month substantiated by unemployment claims.  The economy and issue of unemployment are not improving at this point.

The answers are scarce by pundits and politicians.  Outsourcing over the last 15 years and the globalization of industry has taken this once-prosperous and surplus-laden economy and put it in the hopper.  Additionally, and mostly to blame is the military industrial complex, which spent all surplus and indebted us to China over the erroneous war in Iraq, and the Realist/imperialist war in Afghanistan.  G.W. Bush's administration's policies bankrupted our country's honor and coffers simultaneously and the group of cowboys in his cabinet and he just waltzed out the back door, untouched.

I wish this country had reason to celebrate Labor Day.  So, fire up the grill and have your Walmart hamburger and hotdogs.  There's not much budget this month for much else.