Labor Day is almost here. Should we also celebrate Capital Day?

[Rick Rowlands]

Apparently Dennis you didn't even read his post:

"This is not class warfare. I'm not "taking sides" between labor and capital. I don't see them as natural antagonists in spite of some people's attempts to make them so. Don't think of capital as something possessed and deployed only by bankers, the college-educated"

[irishbobcat]

Dan, Dan, Dan......

Always taking the side of the Rich........

You are the biggest brown-noser to the rich I have ever seen...........

you firmly place your face in the rich folks ARSE and lick it with a smile........

When will quit goose-stepping to the neo-con rich Nazi's??

[Dan Moadus]

Having been one of America's labor force for most of my life, I have always been sympathetic to the claim that "labor" built America. We recognize  that everything that doesn't occur naturally in our country, must be created by someones hands. But as this articles points out labor is only half the story, and perhaps not the important half. Give it a read and tell us if you agree:


By Lawrence W. Reed

Any good economist will tell you that as complementary factors of production, labor and capital are not only indispensable but hugely dependent upon each other as well.


Capital without labor means machines with no operators, or financial resources without the manpower to invest in. Labor without capital looks like Haiti or North Korea: plenty of people working but doing it with sticks instead of bulldozers, or starting a small enterprise with pocket change instead of a bank loan.


There may be no place in the world where there's a shortage of labor but every inch of the planet is short of capital. There is no worker who couldn't become more productive and better himself and society in the process if he had a more powerful labor-saving machine or a little more venture capital behind him. Capital can refer to either the tools of production or the funds that finance them. It ought to be abundantly clear that the vast improvement in standards of living over the past century is not explained by physical labor (we actually do less of that), but rather to the application of capital.


This is not class warfare. I'm not "taking sides" between labor and capital. I don't see them as natural antagonists in spite of some people's attempts to make them so. Don't think of capital as something possessed and deployed only by bankers, the college-educated, the rich, or the elite. We workers of all income levels are "capital-ists" too—every time we save and invest, buy a share of stock, fix a machine, or start a business.


And yet, we have a "Labor Day" in America but not a "Capital Day."


Like most Americans, I've traditionally celebrated labor on Labor Day weekend—not organized labor or compulsory labor unions, mind you, but the noble act of physical labor to produce the things we want and need. Nothing at all wrong about that!


But this year on Labor Day weekend, I'll be thinking about the remarkable achievements of inventors of labor-saving devices, the risk-taking venture capitalists who put their own money (not your tax money) on the line and the fact that nobody in America has to dig a ditch with a spoon or cut his lawn with a knife.

Happy Capital Day, America!