Happy Labor Day 2012

To many people, Labor Day seems to be one of those holidays that means little more than a day off work. I'm sure I'm not the first one to notice the irony in celebrating working people by having a day without work but it is what it is.

Anyway, I've come to view Labor Day as a day to assess our freedom. The freedom to work for money is a sign of liberty. To choose how to invest your time and effort , to earn a paycheck, and to spend the money as you wish are things that free people do. Conversely, to be forced to work and then turn over your earnings to someone else is the very definition of slavery. I fear we're becoming a nation of slaves.

As I write this, our nation is $16 trillion in debt and we're adding more than a trillion more dollars every year. The only way the debt will ever be paid is by taxing future generations. A child born today will bear a portion of that debt that totals more than the child will earn in his entire lifetime so the debt is generational and will be an immediate liability owed by our children, and their children, and even their children. Every dime we're spending now will be taken from our great grand children's paychecks. They will be working for our benefit. By definition, they will be our slaves and will have to work to pay our bills even though we'll be dead and gone.

We should view Labor Day as a type of Independence Day. Let's make a vow to stop deficit spending and stop feeding the leviathan that is our federal government. Let each person enjoy the fruit of his own labor instead of turning over a larger and larger part of his paycheck in the form of taxes. More importantly, let our grandchildren do the same.