Valuing labor and leisure

I think that we have the order of summer holidays almost perfect. It is absolutely right that we honor those who have given their lives to protect the right of self-determination for all people, and I personally extend my Memorial Day thoughts to those first responders who have also sacrificed their lives to protect the lives of others. The giving of ones life to protect others sits high in value in any civilization. In the middle of the summer, we recognize the value of thought, and how organizing principles can bring people together. Independence Day in the US is more than just a statement about freedom or quality of life (look at Canada, they have freedom and high quality of life and never fired a shot in independence). The simple statement that every person had equal standing in society stood against almost every successful civilian organization of people since the dawn of agriculture. For those individuals who said it in the face of death, it is right that we remember and honor their efforts. Then we come to the penultimate celebration of the summer, and the one that rightly holds the highest place....

The celebration of labor.

Without labor, no sacrifice or grand statement means anything. Without those who toil, slowly sacrificing their bodies through years of stress and strain, we do not have food on the table, a place to rest our heads, or clean water to drink. Without the struggles of those who have labored previously, we not only would have no infrastructure on which to build our quality of life, but we would not have the concept of the weekend, the virtual elimination of child labor, or the idea that a sick person best serves the market by recovering rather than working themselves to death.

Over the past four decades, there is no question that the great majority of our country, as expressed through the political system, has shown - at best - disrespect, and more likely utter contempt for those who labor. Economically, as a country, we have invested less and less in the productive labor of our own people, and created more and more opportunity for those who work for the accumulation of capital than for those who work to improve the quality of life of people.

Even our economic system devalues the individual who works. We speak of increasing profitability, improving productivity, and chasing efficiency as though they are the greatest accomplishments that we can achieve. Every time we shift capital from production to profit, every increase in productivity, ever efficiency realized means that someone either loses a job, loses wages, or loses freedom. Businesses has no measure of success that seeks to improve the employment of the individual or their access to health and leisure.

This does raise a question, however. Outside of the reasons or intent behind this disrespect toward and devaluation of labor, we need to ask ourselves, how much do we really need to work. As our economy has advanced, little attention has been paid to the thought that as we move toward a more productive economy, that means that we may need to work less. At the turn of the 20th century, almost 12,000,000 people were employed in the agricultural industry...a whopping 16% of the population (not just the workforce). Today, that number sits at around 750,000, or 0.2% of the population. At that same time in history, people died from water outbreaks on a regular basis as we rapidly urbanized our population. Today, approximately 50,000 workers in the water and sewage industry keep us supplied with safe drinking water and separate us from harmful waste. Less than 1% of our population keeps us fed and watered. Since air is free, that means that three out of four of our basic requirements can now be met with almost no labor input.

The last need, shelter, has a more complicated story to tell. Of the entire construction/service workforce of 10 million, it is difficult to separate out how many work directly in the building of residential shelter or support the water and food industries. Some estimate residential construction at as many as 2.5 million, but it is probably safe to say that around 3 to 4 million work directly or indirectly at supporting these basic human needs. Even at that number, and assuming 50 hours of labor a week for each of those individuals, the amount of time each American needs to work in order to maintain the basic necessities of life is about one hour per year.

Although this assessment does not include education or healthcare, it points toward the fact that our efforts to improve quality of life have succeeded. The idea that we have to labor and work hard to provide a basic quality of life no longer holds. We can move away from an economy that seeks to punish us with work, and move toward one in which we all maximize our potential. We will still need farmers, construction workers...labor of all sorts, but in this future, those who sacrifice some of their freedom to pursue those endeavors will receive appropriate compensation for it. We will value labor more highly precisely because we will need to fewer people to do it, and will need to entice those who do away from other pursuits.

Each Labor Day, I thank those who have shortened their lifespan by choosing to use their strength to support a high quality of life for all. More importantly, I hope for a future in which we recognize that we all can work less and still enjoy that quality of life. I look toward a future where the celebration of Labor Day, like the celebration of Memorial Day or Independence Day, recognizes the past sacrifices of a small number so that the larger population can work toward the improvement of our species, and not just its mere survival.