The Price of Liberty

From a conservative, quasi-libertarian point of view: What is Labor Day?

Labor Day began in the late 1800’S. It was recognizing American workers at a time when most labor (industry, mining, transportation, farming) was dangerous, poorly paid, and largely unprotected. Congress declared it a federal holiday in 1894. The post-War period featured years of organizing and bitter labor disputes, including actual combat situations.

Of course, the symbolic holiday didn’t cease that sort of thing. Although much has changed since then. Federal and state laws now establish protections involving workplace safety, wages and hours, discrimination, and child labor. These political actions likely did speed up the actions of employers, including the large industrial combines, railroads, to do what they should have done: protect their own workers. But many changes, improvements, in safety and health of workers since that time have been initiated and implemented by private business. Encouraged as much by the need to keep insurance (and other) costs down and preserve their trained workforce, as to keep government from over-reacting more than they did. And labor unions then did push matters of wages, working conditions, retirement, and respect.

But the result? Most lovers of liberty strongly believe that labor unions have largely become outdated. Yet, though less ubiquitous today, they persist in strength and number. (We speak here of unions other than those of government workers, which are a corrupt element of the permanent bureaucracy and Deep State.