The Labor Day Sale
I'm a pretty cynical bastard, but sometimes the irony of a life slaps me in the face. The other day I was somewhat stunned by people talking about how they were looking forward to the sales of this now past labor day weekend. I shouldn't have been. I see the commercials on the television, hear em on the radio and see print advertisements in every possible public space that can be sold, but to actually hear people go on about their intention to spend the holiday that celebrates organized labor, shopping at stores that employ people part time at below subsistence wages, was a bit of a shock.
I wonder how long it will be before we change the name of the holiday. You don't see kids coming home from school telling mom and dad all about the things they learned Labor Day. It's not like there are any sort of construction paper hats or hand turkeys they can make for the day. There is no Jolly Saint Union to preach solidarity and consolidated bargaining. Heck the local news mostly referred to the Holiday weekend as the unofficial end of summer. Maybe therein lies the hint of the future. It might go for a trite Seasons Change Day. Maybe with a continuing dumbing down trend it will actually be Last Bar - B - Que Day. National Hangover Monday?
The current trend in liberal thinking, the big issue for the fall elections, is a raise in the national minimum wage. How effective this will be in alleviating social ills, I don't know. It is quite possible that it will just be a huge inflationary step in that businesses know that their stockholders will not except anything less than growth in revenue so any increase in their costs will immediately be passed on to the consumers (plus whatever reasonable amount they can tack on and still plausibly claim that it is mandated by rising costs). While I certainly think people need to be paid a living wage, I think by going the legislative route we take the power away from the workers. People need to be more involved in the decisions that effect their lives.
So to any poor wage slave who was stuck selling future landfill to people, I can only say this: Solidarity Brothers (and Sisters).
More Laters
I wonder how long it will be before we change the name of the holiday. You don't see kids coming home from school telling mom and dad all about the things they learned Labor Day. It's not like there are any sort of construction paper hats or hand turkeys they can make for the day. There is no Jolly Saint Union to preach solidarity and consolidated bargaining. Heck the local news mostly referred to the Holiday weekend as the unofficial end of summer. Maybe therein lies the hint of the future. It might go for a trite Seasons Change Day. Maybe with a continuing dumbing down trend it will actually be Last Bar - B - Que Day. National Hangover Monday?
The current trend in liberal thinking, the big issue for the fall elections, is a raise in the national minimum wage. How effective this will be in alleviating social ills, I don't know. It is quite possible that it will just be a huge inflationary step in that businesses know that their stockholders will not except anything less than growth in revenue so any increase in their costs will immediately be passed on to the consumers (plus whatever reasonable amount they can tack on and still plausibly claim that it is mandated by rising costs). While I certainly think people need to be paid a living wage, I think by going the legislative route we take the power away from the workers. People need to be more involved in the decisions that effect their lives.
So to any poor wage slave who was stuck selling future landfill to people, I can only say this: Solidarity Brothers (and Sisters).
More Laters
posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 1:04 AM
1 Comments:
Sometimes I wonder at what point the U.S. will become a country where the sole industry is retail. I feel like my town is well on its way, where the retail employees patron other retail establishments, and there are few other real industries in the area to support the new retail places that are opening.
Post a Comment
<< Home