“I’ve been a pauper, a puppet, a poet, a pawn and a king … “

Those lyrics from a wonderful Frank Sinatra song aren’t literally true for most of us, yet in a figurative sense, we suspect they are.

In our working lives, most of us have held lots of positions. We’ve worked in small companies and larger ones. We’ve labored for ourselves and for others. We’ve worked in satisfying jobs and in less than satisfying ones. Most of of us have worked in paying jobs — some of us in non-paying jobs — and some, the uber-wealthy, not at all.

We remember the Four Factors of Production: land, labor, capital & entrepreneurship. Labor is that key component that is honored today.

Today marks the 125th Anniversary of this American holiday, “The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public ‘the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families.’”

Reminiscing back a bunch of years, we recounted all the paying jobs we’ve held since that first real job. Many of us did qualify as having paid jobs if our parents provided an allowance for doing the dishes, cleaning up around the house, mowing the grass and a wide expanse of other tasks. But that first real job is something memorable. For us that was one of caddy at Galen Hall Golf Course.

Many decades later, we’re still working.

At some point and for many of us, work is a necessary ingredient to stay alive. Working at a job is a means of getting the capital to buy the things we want and need. For others, work is something that alleviates boredom and tedium. Work affords meaning and value for living.

Here’s a short video that has some answers to this question: Why do people work?

So, on Labor Day, 2019 … we want to say “thank you” to everyone who is working today.

We want to say “Happy Labor Day” to everyone — except those — in the uber-weathy class who’ve never worked but have been the recipients of generational wealth passed on and those elected public servants who’ve been at the public trough for way too long and those who’ve received corporate welfare payments and those entrepreneurs who’ve chosen to not recognize the people who labor on their behalf by providing fair compensation, fair benefits and a safe working environment.