Labor Day is a day for labor to take rest.  It is also a day, in which many observe and reflect on something about labor, perhaps to recognize its myriad contributions to the country, to note its important role and function in the economy; and to offset somewhat the Biblical curse of having to labor, by admitting the inherent dignity in any and every form of honest work.  This latter aspect may seem an anomaly for a capitalist country, but it is really one necessary precondition.

These United States of America were founded in large measure by bond labor: indentured white, enslaved black, desperate immigrant.  The system of slavery in the Old South was first and foremost a system of labor, geared to agriculture and geared to the plantation economy-of-scale in King Cotton.  Southerners pointed out, by way of negative reference and self-justification, that working conditions in Northern cities and factories were squalid and unsafe, that workers lacked the same standard of food, shelter and healthcare that most "Negroes" enjoyed.  Southerners said that so-called free labor was, in actuality, “wage slavery.”  It is an interesting perspective, however grossly wrong.  Labor will endure hardship, so long as the prospect for self-improvement remains.  So long as no man—and no government—takes from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  It is better to die broke a free man, rather than a well-kept horse.  Men are not horses.

Booker T. Washington respected free labor, as well as the potential in every free person to save and to accumulate through hard work.  Martin Luther King, Jr. also instructed that, if you are a janitor, then be the best darn janitor there ever was!  The point being, there is nothing wrong with anything you do if it’s honest and provides for yourself and family.  Every position, however lowly, in a free market contributes by definition.  Every job is a low-or-middle rung on the ladder of success.  Labor can become skilled—it can even become management.  Of course, we know it is possible to work oneself to death.  I think of the stereotypic, partly mythic coal miner from the last century—stuck in a job that literally kills him.  Yes labor must work smart, as well as hard, to get ahead.  One advantage free labor has over chattel (slave) labor is that free labor can move.  Labor can say to a bad boss, “Take this job, and . . . !”  Labor makes its bed, like anyone else; and the choices we make as free people really matter (i.e., concerning education, leisure, family life, etc.).  Then too, quality of life is always something more than a salary.

There are places on earth very unlike these United States.  Half the labor (indigenous or imported) in third world countries simply couldn’t make it here.  Management is incompetent and abusive, but labor is also incompetent and stupid.  If you haven’t seen it, you might not believe it.  Instead of pruning a tree, the workmen butcher it by cutting the top out—and then let the limbs fall on house roofs and fences.  Instead of fixing car engines, the “mechanics” use defective parts that aren’t the right size and put things together so that entire engines fall out in the road.  I’ve seen workmen move furniture into newly painted rooms, scraping walls and ripping furniture.  I’ve seen cable guys destroy plaster walls to put in one simple connection, and phone “technicians” leave the wires dangling and the phone numbers unknown.  (OK, some of these examples did in fact take place in these United States).  But by and large, we’ve got it over the rest of the world—and I mean in spades. 

We have the finest labor force, as well as the finest managers, of any country at any time on the face of the earth (notwithstanding the inevitable, individual exceptions).  There’s no meaningful class distinction here, because most managers were themselves workers—or at least don’t look down on workers—and a lot of workers hope to be managers soon.  Workers here are even the stockholders, for crying out loud.  Almost anyone in America will shovel horse hockey if you pay enough!  It doesn’t matter that it’s something a prisoner might do.  That’s because Americans don’t look down on any job per se, because the job isn’t what matters most.  Yes we want to do “a good job,” and special skills are to be respected.  Excellence and pride are in fact the hallmarks of American labor.  More than that, however, this Labor Day let’s consider and appreciate the dignity of honest work by free people.  In every job there is also in it the freedom to do or not to do, to move or to stay put; to exert effort in pursuit of individual dreams.  And there is the promise to reap what’s been sewn, to taste the cake we’re baking every single day with our hard, and smart labor.     

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Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford.  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he serves as State Director of the Republican Freedom Coalition (RFC).  His forthcoming book, Horse Sense for the New Millennium is scheduled for release in September (iUniverse, Inc., 2011).  Email: Wes@WesRiddle.com.