Labor Day FreeCapitalist Style
September 1, 2008 by Jason K. Vaughn
Filed under Principle 10
HIGHLAND, UT | 1 September 2008 |Labor Day is a typically socialist holiday. It was founded in the 1880s by labor union leaders who wanted to advance the cause of those unions. At first, it was to be merely a picnic for union members and their families with moving speeches included in the festivities. By 1894, it had become a national holiday with parades to rival any independence Day celebration. Today, even the socialist aspects of the day seem to have been forgotten as the holiday has taken a flavor of the last summer fling before fall set in and children are settled back into school. But is it necessary, even for radical capitalists to forget this day? What, about Labor Day, could a capitalist celebrate? Labor is characterized by the human expression of value creation
Key Points
- Ayn Rand explained, “In order to sustain life, every living species has to follow a certain course of action required by its nature. The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort. Production is the application of reason to the problem of survival.”
- Adam Smith devoted 500 pages to the importance of labor in Wealth of Nations.
- To explain the importance of private property in a person’s liberty, John Locke wrote, “The ‘labour’ of his body and the ‘work’ of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever, then, he removes out of the state of Nature hath provided and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with it, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state Nature placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it that excludes the common right of other men.”
- Thomas Jefferson:
- I made a point of paying my workmen in preference to all other claimants. I never parted with one without settling with him, and giving him either his money or my note. Every person that ever worked for me can attest this, and that I always paid their notes pretty soon.
- The great mass of our population is of laborers; our rich who can live without labor, either manual or professional, being few and of moderate wealth. Most of the laboring class possess property, cultivate their own lands, have families, and from the demand for their labor are enabled to exact from the rich and the competent such prices as enable them to be fed abundantly, clothed above mere decency, to labor moderately and raise their families.
- Benjamin Franklin used Poor Richard to teach much about labor, “If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for, as Poor Richard says, At the working man’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter.
- One of Rich Dad’s lessons for Robert Kiyosaki was that the rich “work to learn, not for money.”
Conclusion
The list goes on and on. The capitalist values labor, both his own and that of others. The entire sturcture of being a producer depends upon a person’s labor. Therefore, in spite of the socialist usurpation of labor from the “worker,” a capitalist should celebrate a Labor Day. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to perform his own value creation and to engage in exchanges with those whose labor he values.
Action Steps
- Recognize the value of labor in your own life. List ways you can create value in the world. Make a plan to begin value creation in at least one new way today.
- Recognize the value others create in your life. Resolve to exchange with these people and to allow the dollars to follow from your hand to their in appreciation of that value creation.
MRFC Principles: 
Sources
Rand, Ayn. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Signet Non-fiction edition, first published 1967. p. 17.
Locke, John. The Second Treatise on Government, Chapter V, “Of Property” paragraph 26.
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Paul Leicester Ford. 10 vols. New York: G.P. Putnum’s Sons, 1892–1899. 5:34.
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Albert Ellery Bergh. 20 vols. Washington: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1907. 14:182.
The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by Albert Henry Smyth. 10 vols. new York: The Macmillan Company, 1905–7. 2:372.
Kiyosaki, Robert. Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Warner Books, New York, 1997.
Jason,
I like this article. Let me add a quote from Brigham Young. As you know, he was a big fan of Labor – calling the state of Utah, “The Beehive State” referring to, as I understand it, industry – the busyness, preparedness and unity that can happen when good people are focused on making good things happen.
Brigham said, “This is the greatest wealth we possess: to know how to direct our labors rightly.” This is when moving mountains becomes a real possibility! We each have potential then, to become very, very wealthy if we are willing to act, and do was it takes. Labor then would be creating value in our homes and communities and sticking to it until the job is done.
Not to cheapen what you said here, Jewel, but it reminded me of a statement by Kurt Vonnegut on how to write a book. It is much like pumping up a hot air balloon with a bicycle pump. You can do it but it takes an enormous amount of effort. Moving mountains, pumping up balloons: let’s get to work.
Labor is indeed the pure expression of an individual. It separates producers from what Ayn Rand calls “second-handers.” It allows a person to become valuable, rather than simply take up space as human potential. Value is as value does.
–Dave Charbonneau