Labor Day marks the end of summer here in the USA, and because it is so associated with barbecues, packing up to "go home" (or off to college), retail sales, and the like, the idea of honoring those who labor/work seems to get lost in the shuffle.
As my regular readers know, I've long subsisted on rather low-paying jobs, the kind that you do to cover the rent, because I never found a current-paradigm career that matched my skills and talents. There is a catch-22 situation with these jobs and holidays like Labor Day, July 4, Memorial Day, etc. Often you are given the choice whether to work or not, but these are the sorts of non-professional jobs where you aren't paid when you are out sick or take a day off. So either you have some time with your family and forego a day's pay, or you work and get paid, but forego the opportunity to relax along with family and friends. In an ideal Labor Day paradigm, all workers would get the day off and the pay, right?
Another random "labor" thought...both "employee" and "employer" derive from the French verb "employer" -- to employ or use. It's been hard all these years knowing that, and knowing that there is some validity to the idea that most employees are, indeed, being "used" (to do a specific task that a company needs doing). I have never employed anyone, so I don't know the experience of putting someone to work, or the tug-of-war between treating them well and making a profit. It must be challenging to even the most principled person.
In the future, I hope this terminology will not be used at all because people will be working together in a genuine, voluntary and organic way, not in a way that is dictated so much from above. It would be wonderful if, at the end of high school, everyone had the opportunity to choose the skill they do best "for a living", whatever it might be. Our lifetime "job" would be to share our highest talents with the world; in that way, love, not profit, would be the guiding principle. It's easy to pooh-pooh this. But when you think of the wasted human talent and intelligence in our current model, it is tragic; young people being forced into molds that aren't right for them, simply to fill the "jobs of the future". Ugh. And the hardest "labor" is often poorly-paid, and/or the work that impacts nature most violently. I think we need to get way ahead of the curve, and completely re-think everything that has to do with labor and employment. That would be the best way to honor workers.
