Why is Labor Day So Important . . .
Why do we celebrate Labor? Most people don’t know the history of labor in America. Unions for the most part have become a bad word and yet they were once the reason everyone in the United States enjoyed a living wage.
Most everyone thinks of sweat shops as something happening only in third world countries. The truth we had them also. And then the unions happened and forced the owners to share some of their profits . . .
There was a time of Company Towns in America . . . Owners of companies built towns in distant places. They knew that if they built it, workers would come. There were no houses, no stores, no streets, nothing . . . And so they built them. And the result, Company Towns . . . Wisconsin had them everywhere. What’s wrong with that?
In these towns, the stores, restaurants, houses were all owned by the Company. If a worker didn’t work, he didn’t have a place to live, didn’t have any food to eat . . . He didn’t have a thing that wasn’t given to him by the Company . . .
So he could always leave. Company Towns most times paid with company script. It was only good at Company stores for Company goods. And so where would a person holding this script go, to redeem for U.S. dollars?
Peshtigo, Wisconsin was a Company Town . . . The same day as the Chicago Fire, It burned . . . No one really knows the death count, but they say it was anywhere from 500 to well over a thousand. And the Company workers stayed and tried to fight the fire and they perished.
Today, health insurance ties us to our employers. Workers just aren’t able to freely leave for fear of losing their insurance . . . And the interim solution is ridiculous. Healthcare should be universal outside the control of business. Every American should have it. Why?
Because one tragic event can eliminate all a worker has . . . Luck shouldn’t be what it takes to survive, eh?
Dan Hanosh
Dreams are yours to Share
My Books: The World Outside My Window, AuthorHouse, 2004
Soon to come, Sleepless Nights
Links: Dreams Are Yours To Share
Warriors and Wars
The Moon Also Rises
This Side Of Midnight
The World Outside My Window
Dan Hanosh poemhunter.com
Dan’s Room 2 Write
Copyright © 2007 by Dan Hanosh. All rights reserved.
Technorati Tags: Dan Hanosh’s Warriors and Wars, Warriors and Wars, themoonalsorises, dreamsareyourstoshare, thissideofmidnight, theworldoutsidemywindow, soon to come Dan Hanosh’s Sleepless Nights, Sleepless Nights, Dan Hanosh’s Sins of a Father, Sins of a Father, Dan Hanosh’s The World Outside My Window, The World Outside My Window, poetry, Dan Hanosh’s poetry, Dan Hanosh, Rambling on the wires, Ramblings on the wires, Dare to Dream, The Brave Few, Warriors and Wars The Brave Few, Politics, One Man's Thoughts On Life, Opinions, Company Towns, Sweat Shops, heath care, Peshtigo Wisconsin, Chicago Fire, company towns in America
Why do we celebrate Labor? Most people don’t know the history of labor in America. Unions for the most part have become a bad word and yet they were once the reason everyone in the United States enjoyed a living wage.
Most everyone thinks of sweat shops as something happening only in third world countries. The truth we had them also. And then the unions happened and forced the owners to share some of their profits . . .
There was a time of Company Towns in America . . . Owners of companies built towns in distant places. They knew that if they built it, workers would come. There were no houses, no stores, no streets, nothing . . . And so they built them. And the result, Company Towns . . . Wisconsin had them everywhere. What’s wrong with that?
In these towns, the stores, restaurants, houses were all owned by the Company. If a worker didn’t work, he didn’t have a place to live, didn’t have any food to eat . . . He didn’t have a thing that wasn’t given to him by the Company . . .
So he could always leave. Company Towns most times paid with company script. It was only good at Company stores for Company goods. And so where would a person holding this script go, to redeem for U.S. dollars?
Peshtigo, Wisconsin was a Company Town . . . The same day as the Chicago Fire, It burned . . . No one really knows the death count, but they say it was anywhere from 500 to well over a thousand. And the Company workers stayed and tried to fight the fire and they perished.
Today, health insurance ties us to our employers. Workers just aren’t able to freely leave for fear of losing their insurance . . . And the interim solution is ridiculous. Healthcare should be universal outside the control of business. Every American should have it. Why?
Because one tragic event can eliminate all a worker has . . . Luck shouldn’t be what it takes to survive, eh?
Dan Hanosh
Dreams are yours to Share
My Books: The World Outside My Window, AuthorHouse, 2004
Soon to come, Sleepless Nights
Links: Dreams Are Yours To Share
Warriors and Wars
The Moon Also Rises
This Side Of Midnight
The World Outside My Window
Dan Hanosh poemhunter.com
Dan’s Room 2 Write
Copyright © 2007 by Dan Hanosh. All rights reserved.
Technorati Tags: Dan Hanosh’s Warriors and Wars, Warriors and Wars, themoonalsorises, dreamsareyourstoshare, thissideofmidnight, theworldoutsidemywindow, soon to come Dan Hanosh’s Sleepless Nights, Sleepless Nights, Dan Hanosh’s Sins of a Father, Sins of a Father, Dan Hanosh’s The World Outside My Window, The World Outside My Window, poetry, Dan Hanosh’s poetry, Dan Hanosh, Rambling on the wires, Ramblings on the wires, Dare to Dream, The Brave Few, Warriors and Wars The Brave Few, Politics, One Man's Thoughts On Life, Opinions, Company Towns, Sweat Shops, heath care, Peshtigo Wisconsin, Chicago Fire, company towns in America
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