Eight Reasons Work in America Is a Disgrace This Labor Day
The idea was beautiful in 1882. By 1894 the president had signed the holiday and the deployment order in the same week.
A note from Lawrence
Labor Day began as something beautiful: in 1882, New Yorkers climbed lamp posts to watch working people march for a shorter day. Twelve years later, Grover Cleveland signed the federal holiday in the middle of the Pullman Strike and sent troops into Chicago five days later.
From there I count eight reasons work in this country is a disgrace, with receipts: real wages falling for months while corporate profits hit a record, a federal minimum wage frozen since 2009, health premiums rising like a second rent, and more. The money didn’t vanish. It moved, and it didn’t move to you.
