Labor Day Is For Working

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Interesting piece on the day by historian Thaddeus Russell.

In 1884, when President Grover Cleveland signed the bill making Labor Day a national holiday on the first Monday in September, he and its sponsors intended it not as a celebration of leisure but as a promotion of the great American work ethic. Work, they believed, was the highest calling in life, and Labor Day was a reminder to get back to it. It was placed at the end of summer to declare an end to the season of indolence, and also to distance it from May Day, the spring event that had become a symbol of the radical labor movement.


The day most of us now spend in happy leisure was created to urge Americans to work more, not less. The holiday’s inventors would have been dismayed to see that Americans today would use it only to float in a pool, play putt-putt golf, or - even worse - to fantasize about a life in which they do nothing but play.
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
I plan on working , need to change my car's oil, need to go out at low tide to properly place my lobster traps, its been tough to pick good spots at high tide.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
I always change my own oil too. I will know I'm old when I can't change my own oil.

And I'm just speaking about me, I am not saying others who go to Jiffy Lube are old!
 
I use a local version to Jiffy Lube, have for years. One reason is that by the time I find a recycle center to take the old oil and filter the cost is about the same. Another reason is I see it as helping provide jobs. One more reason is I hate doing it.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
I use a local version to Jiffy Lube, have for years. One reason is that by the time I find a recycle center to take the old oil and filter the cost is about the same. Another reason is I see it as helping provide jobs. One more reason is I hate doing it.

They charge you for recycling oil and filters? Up here they are required to accept up to 5 gallons of used oil and filters free of charge per person per day.

I go there for the convenience. We are discouraged from working on our cars in the condo complex I live in. The only part I hate is when they try to "up-sell" you.
 

UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)

Well-Known Member
LOL Sleeve, it does for me. Mother-in-law and Sister-in-law, aging unmarried females living in one house ALWAYS needs something fixed, installed or moved.

Hope you and ALL BCers have a nice day off.

As soon as they read the "aging unmarried females" that's not the only thing that will need fixin'.
 

Babagounj

Strength through joy
Change your own oil? No Jiffy Lubes in eastern Massachusetts?

yes they do.
But my oil filter is located directly under the exhaust manifold. So the only way to remove it is when the engine is cold. I found that out the first time I went to Grease Monkey. Poor kid burnt his arm.
Besides my vehicle has ( and I have a letter from Toyota proving this ) known history of excessive sludge build up.
So I need it to sit for several hours, I let it drain out until nothing flows out, and I fill it up with Mobile 1 0w-30, must get prepared for the winter. For some added protection I pour in some Tufoil.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Happy Corporation Day!

It is Labor Day, 2011, but labor has nothing to celebrate. The jobs that once gave American workers a stake in capitalism have left and gone away. Corporations in pursuit of near-term profits have moved labor’s jobs to China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea and Eastern Europe.

Labor arbitrage, that is, the substitution of foreign labor that is paid less than its productivity for American labor, has enriched Wall Street, shareholders and corporate CEOs, but it has devastated American employment, household incomes, tax base, and the outlook for the US economy.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]This Labor Day week-end’s job report, announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday, September 2, says zero net new jobs were created in August, a number 250,000 less than the amount of monthly job creation necessary to make progress in reducing America’s high rate of unemployment.

The zero figure is actually an optimistic number. As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear, problems with the BLS’s seasonal adjustments and “birth-death” model
[/SIZE]during the prolonged downturn that began in December 2007 result in the BLS over-estimating new jobs and underestimating lost jobs.
 
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