Labor Day celebrates Labor in the light of its contributions to our Nation's success and standard of living. It has its infancy in Labor Unions and in my view has the color of Marxism in the mix. Don't get me wrong here, I am a big believer in labor if defined as work done willingly. There is a big difference between work done willingly and work done unwillingly or enforced. The latter begins to look like slavery when compensation is very low or non-existent. But even having that view, I admire people who choose to work. I choose to work and it brings much more than money.
Using work as a synonym for labor does not necessarily dampen its Day. Work that actually produces something is not merely keeping busy. Busy work does have a bad connotation meaning it is not really needed and is non-productive of anything useful. Bureaucracies are expert in it. Work in the direction of real productivity has an end, a product if you will. Businesses organize their work force into coordinated actions that eventually get spit out as useful salable products. Keep in mind that a product can be a service as well.
When I was a young boy about age 10, my Father offered me a part time helper job in his own part landscaping side hustle. He was what was then called a Stationary Engineer servicing refrigeration and line equipment for Hawthorn Melody Farms and Dairy on Chicago Avenue in Chicago's near West side. The actual farm was in Libertyville and we have no occasion to go there except once on a family outing. The Chicago plant bottled and cartoned the various milk products and that was a nice perk of of the gig. When all sweated up and we did sweat, my Dad would give me a salt tablet and ask what I;d like from the enormous cooler where trucks would load each morning. Being a little fat ass, you might suspect I;d want a Chocolate Milk but no…I always wanted a Butter Milk. Why I had taken to its bitter sourness is beyond me but I did. To this day I like Keifer and sour cream and plain yogurt. Kind of odd for the Italian food sensibilities I was raised on. But my point is that there was indeed a perk to a job I hated. Yes, I hated landscaping or at least the laborious jobs my Dad assigned me. Looking down a building frontage that seemed to grow in length with each glance like some Hitchcock camera trick, clippers in hand, I hated it. The spinning trimmers of today were years away at that time and my right arm developed a noticeable bulging forearm like a mini Popeye. I called it my tumor with humor. It would likely be remembered by my brothers who often found it amusing. This job was laborious.
Those who elect to do laborious work should be well paid for it. They often aren't. That show highlighting dirty jobs etc. is fascinating. How do those men and women end up in such work? Is it by choice? I suppose I must grant that or would they be there. But the world is filled with hard work and there are people doing those jobs and they are laborious. In some societies, children are forced into hard work, dangerous work. Us sophisticates in the USA find that deplorable but I believe it exists everywhere in some machination. Work not done by choice is laborious. It debilitates. The maxim “do what you love” is just not in the lexicon of many. But doing what you love does magically transform work into pleasure. It doesn't mean that the physical or mental effort needed to perform it goes away, it just seems to go less noticed.
At my ripe age, many look to the golf course or other pastime but I still enjoy working. Accounting is not necessarily a physically demanding job but it does task the mind which is a healthy thing. To say I love accounting must be seen in context with my love of keeping taxpayers out of the clutches of the very powerful IRS. This is even more so now as it has become so politicized and weaponized. This you might say gives me great purpose. It was inspired by my own attacks experienced as both a business owner and Individual. I successfully defended 9 audits over 3 years. It was enlightening and though I had bouts of depression during it, I came out of it with a great education. I also won 95% of the issues and went from a proposed tax of $550,000 to receiving a $4000 refund. Yes, I do what I love. I have actually had several different jobs in my life from being a 13 year old guitar teacher with 72 students per week while attending High School, to writing and producing music for radio and TV for 25 years, to running 2 Engineering Companies, to trading the US Long Bond to well…I enjoyed them all but one. In a short one year stint at the O'Hare Airport Postal Facility, I leaned what laborious meant. I was a mind numbing venture into unconsciousness for a paycheck, I escaped thankfully and then on never worked another again. I have always worked for myself and perhaps in that lays the secret to loving the work I do.
As we celebrate Labor Day, I make the distinction that it includes admiration for everyone who chooses to work for more than a paycheck. I encourage all to find some kind of work that they can love. I never encourage being an employee but rather an entrepreneur working for themselves. That can be most gratifying even taxing at times, but the happiness derived is notable. It is also where most tax breaks are found. Employees get shafted while their bosses get rich using the tax laws that favor them.
So if you work, my congratulations to you. If you love what you work at, all the more so. If you are caught in a bind working at something that is laborious, don't celebrate it. Change it. A meaningful life can be found in Labor. Providing goods or services that help others in some way can bring purpose too. I always try to be of help whether paid or not. I just believe it is the right way to live. When I can no longer be of help, I might look for that golf course. Nah, too much landscaping going on there and no Butter Milk.
Have a great Labor Day..
Best,
Donn Marier
DM-Your Own CFO