In a word, yes! Labor Day, which started in 1882 to honor the working man or little guy, has dengenerated into one of many meaningless paid employee holidays, and it is celebrated now by sailboat races, family picnics, and shopping sprees. Labor Day is a marker, signifying that summer is supposedly over, even if its still 90 degrees outdoors. Pools must be drained, boats winterized, and summer clothing put away until July 4 next year, Independence Day--the marker indicating the official beginning of summer. The 1800s leaders of the Central Labor Union and Knights of Labor, initiators of the Labor Day concept, would be horrified to experience Labor Day 2005, especially people buying affordable, Chinese made clothes at Wal-Mart. Clearly, todays shoppers do not look for the union label or even know what it is. The Industrial Revolution brought many abuses of employees, and labor unions were an excellent short-term remedy. Kenny Rogers song lyrics, you gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them applies to unions. Theyre folding due to their own self-destructive approaches as well as workplace developments they cannot control. Apparently, somebody failed to tell union leaders that the Industrial Revolution had ended and were returning speedily to the historical normalcy of nearly universal (about 80% plus) self-employment. As a result, labor unions are outliving their usefulness and relevance. Theyre anachronisms with little clout, far fewer members, but lots of money (provided by members) for political mischief, funding election campaigns of unelectable candidates. This is their Forrest Gump, stupid is as stupid does unsuccessful political strategy. Union membership has shrunkand continues to shrink dramatically. And, in most cases, employees vote resoundingly against union representation, and even worse for unions, the number of union elections is plummeting, too. So, since Labor Day is passe, since unions are moribund, since more than 100,000 jobs in America per month are being eliminated, since Chinese factories pay 68 to 88 cents per hour, and since few new good jobs are being created in America, since only 27% of people with jobs like them, and since job security is now just an illusion, whats an ambitious, serious hardworking person to do? Self-employment, that's what. There are more small business owners now than union members in America. And thats the happy ending to this article- growing, glorious, wealth-building self-employment. This is a joyous return to historical normalcy. The Industrial Revolution and the concept of secure lifelong employment have ended. Many people are not fully aware of this or are in deep denial, still craving "dream jobs," which are bad dreams or nightmares of 3.5 years duration these days. Working for yourself is even better than ever now, thanks to the Internet, globalism and the rise of home based businesses. Start up costs are very low, as is risk. |
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