Labor Day is past, and with it any recognition of the value of labor, perspective about work and employment, and respect for working class people in general. lol. Well, perhaps not, but it sometimes seems that way.  Living in a world where there is even room to argue about whether there ought to be a ‘minimum’ wage in the first place drives home a pretty clear message that people have a dollar value, and that perhaps it ought to be much lower… which is strangely consistent with the message that it is cheaper to slaughter them wholesale in faraway lands than it is to offer them employment.  We’re strange creatures, human primates.

Why am I even considering the plight of the working class right now? It’s Monday morning. lol. I am preparing to go to work. I don’t write much about work, or working, and certainly the details of my employment are largely pretty irrelevant to questions of ‘who am I?’ or ‘how can I be a better person?’.  What got my attention this morning was actually a Facebook post from a friend commenting on the high percentage of young people eager to retire before their careers even develop.  I’m not really surprised by that.  Personally, I’m generally quite surprised when people don’t seem to be eager to retire at all.  I’m also surprised by low-wage workers who, instead of railing against the low wages, fight to work more hours – as though the thought that the pay itself is what is out of whack doesn’t occur to them… as though they don’t realize they are worth more money.  I’m sure a lot of business owners, large and small, would like to pay less for labor than they do now… but my perspective (and reading) tend to support that the vast majority of workers are grossly underpaid as it is – to the very large benefit of very few people.

I’m not hopping on my soapbox this morning, it’s just an observation about my bemusement that we value ourselves, and our place in the world, so poorly as a general state of things.  Me, I’d love to retire. I’d retire tomorrow and make way for someone younger, faster, hungrier for glory… I would step aside right now, no hard feelings, if I knew I could support my family on my retirement income.  I have plenty to do – writing, painting, developing relationships, being.  (Employment, for me, has never been more than a path to have the resources to do these things, anyway.  There is no value in employed labor whatsoever, for the employed individual, beyond the conversion of labor to spendable dollars.  We’ve been deceived if we think there is.  The only exception is when we employ ourselves to build, make, create, explore, develop, or offer to the world something really new, otherwise, it’s just a job. lol. )

It’s Monday morning, after a very good weekend. I’d rather wake up, have my latte, and paint all day, or write, or walk, or have sex, or talk to friends, or shop… but I will head in to the office, soon, to do things for other people, that in the grander scheme of things are pretty… unimportant.  It’s how I pay for the next lovely weekend, and the next one after that, on into the holidays, and vacations to come.  I’d retire tomorrow if I could afford to.  I have so much I want to do… and so little time for me.

Happy Monday!  🙂