The True Meaning of Labor Day

We're fresh from the Labor Day weekend holiday, and those of you that have traveled outside of the United States may be aware that while the United States and Canada celebrate on the first Monday of September, more than eighty other countries celebrate a different labor day - more appropriately titled "International Workers Day" - on May 1st.  Did you also know that both of these celebrations were inspired by the same event?

In May 1884, there was a mass demonstration in Haymarket Square in Chicago - a labor rally in support of workers striking for an 8-hour work day.  Tensions ran high, as the day before several demonstrators had been killed by police.  On this particular day, a dynamite bomb was lobbed into the crowd, leading to mass chaos, as well as the death of both police officers and civilians were killed.  The phrase "May Day!" is sometimes attributed to the bedlam that exploded in Haymarket Square that day.

Internationally, left wing movements rallied around the event as a nexus for the growth of the labor movement; from these movements originated the international celebration of Labor Day on May 1st, to turn our historical gaze back to the socioeconomic conflicts that exploded in Chicago that day, to consider what brought those striking workers out to advocate for their right to live as something else besides wage slaves, and to reflect on the consequences of squeezing the bottom of the pyramid for the enrichment of the apex.

The American political response perfectly captures the time-tested strategy that American leaders have employed for centuries when it comes to meaningfully addressing questions of economic equality.  The congress and president at the time (Cleveland, if you're keeping track) expedited the instatement of an American Labor Day in September less than a week after the Haymarket Riot, not to address the substance of the event, but to distract from it!  To placate and misdirect angry constituents without making substantial adjustments to the economic arrangement of the status quo.

I heard a Marketplace report a few weeks ago arguing that people shouldn't pay attention to the Stock Market, as its essentially de-coupled from the wealth of everyday Americans.  It may measure the growth of the economy and the capital of the wealthy, but it doesn't reflect the economic prosperity of everyday Americans.  Consider, for instance, the value of the Dow Jones Industrial average has grown by more than 800% (I'm talking adjusted for inflation dollars here), and real wages for Americans have remained totally flat.

Consider the fact that the Federal Reserve Bank has advertised that it will keep interest rates low until it sees broad wage growth... Just think through that for a moment.  If you're a large corporation, what you've been told is that if you pay your workers more (i.e. increase wages), then your cost of borrowing money will increase (i.e. interest rates go up).  Why in the world would you want to pay your employees more money?

There are real issues of incentives and power in America, and I think nearly everyone in the country would be better off if we spent a few minutes to remember the true meaning of Labor Day...