Labor Day, historically at least, acknowledges and extols the contributions of American workers. Traditionally, the observance is a time for those who work for a living and their families to take close look at their personal finances, their standard of living and their prospects for the futures. Many who have done so this weekend surely will find themselves in unhappy and quite difficult circumstances.
Those who do are not alone in their distress. Good jobs - those with a decent wage and that provide adequate benefits for families - are hard to find. The unemployment rate in July, the last full month for which federal figures were reported, stands at 8.3 percent. In some locales - Dalton just to the south of Chattanooga, for example - the figure is in alarming double digits. Prospects for quick improvement remain uncertain.
There are several indications that the job market is improving, but it will take many months if not several more years to create jobs for both those currently looking for work and individuals re-entering the job market as well as those entering the work force for the first time.
Continued see-sawing in some employment segments crucial to a robust economy - construction, manufacturing, services and especially the public sector, for example - make it difficult for long-term job growth job to occur. Slow growth in personal incomes is both a symptom and a cause reflecting the difficulty many Americans confront in maintaining a middle-class lifestyle. Drought-fueled price increases in food and other necessities in coming months likely will further hamper both consumer confidence and the job market.
That lack of confidence in the future is reflected in government reports on consumer spending. It is up, but not by much, and sustained growth is likely to remain elusive. Many consumers, it seems certain, are spending on necessities only and holding on to what they have left. They are clearly worried that the partisan, legislative gridlock on economic and tax policies -- driven by unrelenting GOP efforts the past four years to hobble the Obama presidency -- will continue to make prompt, corrective steps unlikely if not impossible.
The erosion of the American working and middle classes continues despite increases in productivity. Indeed, those who have jobs are setting records for productivity, but have little to show for it. That's a direct result of holdover Republican tax policies that are responsible for the number of jobs and real earnings going down even as the profits of many corporations and compensation of their executives rises. That formula breaks the once-conventional and mutually beneficial relationship that bound businesses and workers together in common purpose.
The United States grew strong when workers were treated with respect and could expect a fair reward for their labor. That respect and those rewards are increasingly absent in contemporary America, where unions have been beaten back and the threat of off-shoring more jobs has depressed wages and benefits. Many business owners and stockholders reap obscene profits without regard for workers. Those workers, more productive now than at any time in the nation's history, find that layoffs and stagnant or falling wages are often the reward for a job well done.
Many of the former now live lives of ease and comfort, divorced from the realities of a work-a-day existence. The latter, if they can find work, struggle to maintain a modest lifestyle for their families. That's a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, where wage suppression is shrinking the middle class.
For many decades, most U.S. companies were content to provide decent pay and benefits to workers as stockholders and owners reaped a reasonable return on investment. No more. Huge profits, not equitable treatment of the workforce that is directly responsible for those returns, is the driving force in too many U.S. enterprises today. America and Americans are the worse for that mindset.
Americans should use the holiday which celebrates the role, history and productivity of U.S. workers to renew their own and the national commitment to build an economy that is fair to both those who labor and to those who profit from others' work. The former should not be sacrificed to the avarice and arrogance of the latter.
Labor Day traditionally marks the period when those seeking the presidency and congressional offices enter the final phase of their campaigns. Thus, it's a perfect time for Americans to embrace the political system and to insist, through the ballot box, that those who seek office provide policies and direction that will build an economy in which fuller employment and growing incomes give dignity and renewed hope to the millions of men and women whose labor the holiday honors.