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What if they held a class war and nobody noticed? For decades, liberals and progressives have been bashed for conducting a "class war" every time they suggest that it would be appropriate for the extremely wealthy to shoulder a bit more of the burden of paying for government. Meanwhile, a swarm of far-right think-tanks and political action committees have been working tirelessly to promote the idea that taxes on the wealthy should be lowered further from their historic lows, and that entitlement programs such as social security and medicare are too expensive to sustain (and in any case, immoral). The latest attempts to delegitimize public employee unions are the logical next step in what genuinely appears to be the systematic dismantlement of the middle class. This blog will highlight some of the more extreme examples of this activity that may not always show up in your news feeds.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Labour Day

Just a short reminder that Labo(u)r Day has not been around that long.  According to Wikipedia, we owe its origins to typographical workers in Toronto, who were striking for a 58 hour (!!!) work week.  When the leaders of the strike were arrested under Canada's antiquated labour laws, another demonstration was held in early September, and this became an annual "labour festival" that inspired the creation of an official holiday...first in Canada, then in the US.

Given the currently ascendant Galtian philosophy that human capital is a "fungible resource" made up of easily interchangeable "parts" (i.e., workers), one wonders when the previously fringe idea of abolishing this holiday will work its way into the mainstream of Republican ideology.
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