Happy Labor Day

Here’s to the American worker, even the ones doing the dirtiest jobs on their street.

Many of our younger workers are still living with their parents, and/or doing without health insurance.

For many, Labor Day has changed from just the end of Summer to become a day of thankfulness that some workers do in fact have jobs. Our economy is losing jobs — over 203,000 jobs lost in the last 10 years — and those with jobs are making less money. Many people have been unemployed so long that they have stopped actively looking for work. Many of our unemployed have lost their job for the first time ever and are having a hard time coping. Two thirds of them are borrowing money from friends and family. A quarter of them are college graduates.

We now have over a million homeless school kids in this nation. Next time some personal responsibility zealot starts talking about how people need to stop being so lazy or whatever it is that they’re on about, ask what should be done about these million plus kids who through no fault of their own don’t have a place to call home. It’s not like they can just tell mom and dad where to get off and rent apartments of their own. Add colorful language as appropriate.

Without access to capital and affordable insurance, entrepreneurs cannot start businesses that will hire the unemployed, the discouraged, the parents of homeless kids. If we are going to count on big business to get us out of this Great Recession, we’re going to be here a very long time indeed.

To those of you who are employed, Happy Labor Day. To those of you who want a job, I hope you land an interview tomorrow. To those of you who are homeless, or living with your parents, or not able to pay all your bills, I wish you better times for the future.

In Closing: a few obligatory words about health insurance reform; Helen tells you how it is.