Abolish Labor Day

(Original post dated September 01, 2003.)
The US Department of Labor has a webpage on the history of Labor Day. The DoL describes the spirit of the holiday thus:Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.Why do we have a holiday dedicated to only one element of commerce? The “strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country” is dependent on five factors:

  • Labor. Traditionally this term is used to signify all non-managerial positions within a company. I use it to refer to include all non-entrepreneurial positions in a company. The common usage of “labor” and “management” insinuates that managers (including entrepreneurs) don’t really do anything, that their organizational duties isn’t really “work.” I use “entrepreneur” and “labor” to distinguish between those responsible for an entire company and those responsible for portions of it.




  1. iloveporknbeans

    amen to that. only 15% of the private sector workforce is unionized… “labor” is a relic of the 20th century–useful primarily as a threat to check out-of-touch management and remind them that at-will contracts are a repeat game, and that the employment market has a memory.
    that said, i’m a big fan of having a day off at the end of summer. it provides a convenient excuse for barbeques that even the boss/dean can understand.

  2. Alan K. Henderson

    I wasn’t thinking about organized labor all that much when I wrote the original post, except for the fact that Labor Day was invented as a speaking platform for union hacks. I just think it’s wrong to have a holiday for non-managerial workers only and not the other types of people who make free markets work.