America's Ironic Holiday: Labor Day

[HouseMD]

Found a good article on Gawker of all places:

http://gawker.com/labor-day-is-a-scam-t ... 1218081585

Labor day is that most American of holidays where we celebrate the laborers of our society by forcing them to do yet more labor (labor day shopping, eating out, etc.). The fortunate among us get to relax and drink beer while pondering sales or watching sports. Indeed, on labor day we do everything but think about or celebrate what the holiday means. This article is about that and a bit more, and is a good read if nothing else. Really brings me back to my days in retail, when I wanted to say f**k you to just about every holiday shopper that should have been spending their day off with their family instead of hunting for deals.

Do all those people out there that are being forced to work this Labor Day for some rich bastards at minimum wage and without overtime a favor this labor day. Spend some time with the people you care about instead of shopping or eating out. That is if you're fortunate enough to have the day off in the good 'ol USA.

[gsjackson]

The destruction of the labor movement in the US has been systematic and complete, ever since a Treasury Dept. official in the Nixon administration proposed as a remedy to all economic ills in 1971: "squeeze labor."

Not sure how boycotting what remains of retail will help the problem, other than speeding along the devastation, so that people will perhaps at some point realize that they are engaged in class warfare, and they are losing big time. But as the author points out, nationalism, oxycontin, etc., are usually enough to keep Americans pacified and de-politicized.

[jamesbond]

The ironic thing is that I have to work on Labor Day and I don't get overtime for working on a holiday!

A study has shown that Americans get the least amount of paid time off of any industrialized country in the world!

Welcome to the work prison camp known as the United States!