Today is Labor Day — a day that, like many of our holidays, means many different things to different people.
For many, of course, it's the culmination of a three-day weekend, and the end of the traditional summer season — though most today recognize that season carries at least through September or to Columbus Day.
But at its core, Labor Day is a federally recognized day to salute the American worker. And that makes it, in many ways, a day of federal contradictions, especially amid today's still-struggling economy, and the employment uncertainty so many continue to face.
On one hand, our government leaders on both the state and federal levels profess a commitment to jobs and economic recovery. Yet, at the same time, federal stimulus funds — designed, for the most part, to "stimulate" the private-sector economy when first utilized last year — are being funneled more and more into propping up the public-sector status quo.
And far more egregiously, agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are not just failing to help America's small independent commercial fishing businesses and those who work in the fishing industry. They're killing jobs through an admitted, designed regulatory agenda aimed at, as NOAA's own chief Jane Lubchenco acknowledges, bringing about a sizable reduction in the fleet.
Lubchenco and her NOAA minions like to call it "consolidation." But let's call it what it is: forced job losses brought about by a government agency committed to regulating countless small independent businesses — and the people they employ — right out of business, just like government policies did to the American family farm more than a decade ago.
The fraudulent stimulus actions are no less sinister. Consider the $332,402 federal stimulus boost headed to Gloucester to provide added funding for teacher salaries and other education jobs, as announced last week.
Now, those funds are geared toward preserving jobs, right? So that's a good thing, right?
No necessarily. As we noted last week, the money largely props up public-sector employment that brings increasing costs for local taxpayers. That will be especially true if the funding isn't repeated next year and the burden for supporting those jobs falls on local property taxpayers.
In the end, this use of stimulus funds — just like the "stimulus" cash the city of Gloucester steered into Fire Department overtime funding last year — maintains a status quo that the private-sector taxpayer paying the freight simply cannot afford. And that does nothing to "stimulate" job growth in the local private-sector economy.
We certainly celebrate the American worker — the kind of worker who has labored to make it on his or her own, used his or her own initiative to grab a piece of and build upon the American dream.
But as we mark Labor Day today, let's also hope that the federal and state government stops its assault on the independent, private-sector workers who have built this country, and recognizes the true meaning of labor — and this holiday.
That would truly be something to celebrate, today and every day.
