According to the Department of Labor, in 1884, the first Monday in September was selected to commemorate Labor Day, a “workingmen’s holiday.”
Currently, Labor Day is dedicated to spending any leftover summer savings shopping at the mall. Labor Day afternoons are consecrated to gaining a few pounds thanks to generous barbecue pit masters, and for American children, the holiday marks the beginning of the school year. What better way to end summer?
The Department of Labor says the holiday is a “tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”
Time to call the emperor naked: Everyone knows we’re not prospering. We’re hurting. Our workers, our families and our country are all hurting. I know what you’re thinking — “Dude, aren’t we like the richest country in the world? We have the highest gross domestic product, rivaled only by the entire European Union.”
Sure, the U.S. has tons of money — about a fifth of all global dough. However, in context of Labor Day, the deserving Americans are broke.
The U.S. has the highest income inequality in the developed world. When the CIA financial rankings report that America is more unequal of a society than Iran, Uganda and Nigeria, it’s time we do a bit of self-evaluation.
How did we even get here? How did we get to the point that 400 individuals in this country have more wealth than the bottom half of America — 150 million people combined? How did we become a nation where the top 1 percent controls 40 percent of all wealth, while the bottom 80 percent of Americans have only 7 percent? This is economic insanity.
Why is America hurting today?
Robert Reich, the legendary economist who served both Republican and Democratic presidents, said, “The economy is in trouble because so much income and wealth have been going to the top that the rest us no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services we would produce at or near full employment.”
In 1968, when the unemployment rate was less than half of what it is today, Americans working at the minimum wage enjoyed $10.74 an hour — adjusted for inflation. Today’s minimum wage workers in Florida toil at a meager $7.79.
This is absurd, especially at a time when the companies’ shareholders rake in billions of dollars in profits — see Walmart and McDonald’s — without ever breaking a sweat.
Roughly 80 percent of Americans want to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Congress continues to ignore the public opinion, but how can you expect politicians to bite the hand from Wall Street that feeds them?
Reich summed it up: “Americans know a rigged game when they see one. They understand how much money is flowing into politics from the super rich, big corporations and Wall Street — in order to keep their taxes low and entrench their privileged position.”
Although an in-depth look at Labor Day can dishearten us, let’s try to be grateful. After all, our economic woes pale in comparison to the dread experienced by millions of innocent children who shiver in the late hours of Labor Day as the specter of the next school day looms over them.
Zulkar Khan is a microbiology senior. His column runs on Wednesdays. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 9/4/2013 under the headline "Could Labor Day have anything to do with labor?"
