Josh Linkner
ePrize founder, Detroit Venture Partner's CEO, and aspiring Tony Robbins clone Josh Linkner simply does not care for Labor Day.
Detroit Free Press: Following the especially violent Pullman Strike in 1894, U.S. President Grover Cleveland approved the idea of Labor Day as a way to placate union workers.
The world was radically different back then in nearly every way. College degrees were rare. Geographic mobility, minority rights and enabling technologies were yet to emerge. No such thing as a mobile device, not even a car. I’m sure a holiday that forced businesses to shut down and give line workers a break was a smart idea at the time.
Fast-forward a century, and the initial purpose has all but evaporated. Labor Day for most people is about an end-of-summer BBQ, great deals at the mall, or a day to spend with family and friends. Ironically, it is an especially busy day in the retail sector, so the 24% of Americans in that industry are working more instead of taking a break.
Wait until Linkner hears about the lack of technological innovation back when Christmas, Hanukkah, and Independence Day were invented. New rule: You only get paid days off for holidays invented after the mobile phone, which according to Wikipedia means 1973. Anything less would be to create an unfriendly business climate.
Speaking of Wikipedia, compare Linkner's words to the online dictionary's Labor Day entry.
Wikipedia: Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September, that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. It was first nationally recognized in 1894 to placate unionists following the Pullman Strike. With the decline in union membership, the holiday is generally viewed as a time for barbeques and the end of summer vacations.
Now, I'm not arguing that Linkner plagiarized Wikipedia. What I am saying is his entire understanding of the holiday and its cultural significance seems limited to a three-sentence introductory paragraph from an encyclopedia entry.
But whatever his grasp of Labor Day's importance (or lack thereof) to most Americans, he does offer some alternative holidays we should celebrate. My personal favorite is Appreciation Day.
"Rather than our normal yearning or complaining, we could all spend the day being grateful and appreciate all the good things in our lives," Linkner writes.
Everything about that concept is wrong in every way. Yearning and complaining are the impetus for every positive change that has ever happened from the invention of the automobile to the creation of paid vacation to asking out your future wife. One would think someone who runs tech firms, an industry that thrives on "disruption," would understand that basic concept.
Consider this very personal example: Some 100 years ago, my great-grandfather (ever the complainer) looked around his Sicilian dirt farm and decided his life sucked. Yearning for something better, he hopped a boat to the new world. In Josh Linkner's worldview, great-grandpa should've kept his head down and been grateful his wheat crop wasn't destroyed by a cold, wet summer. This may not earn me many Appreciation Day card, but I'm glad the old guy got on that boat.
Frankly, the American working and middle-classes could probably benefit from a little more complaining and yearning because our economic position has weakened greatly over the last 30 years, especially in Michigan according a report released just today.
Crain's Detroit Business: In 1982, Michigan had the fourth-highest median wage in the country, but by 2012, it fell to the 24th highest, according to the report. Six of the eight Midwest states experienced gains in their median wages in the past 30 years. Only Indiana, which saw a 2 percent decline, joined Michigan in Midwestern states that had median wage losses during this time.
Michigan League for Public Policy is a Lansing-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research group that advocates policies that help the poor. They are funded by foundations and businesses that include Ford Foundation, United Way for Southeast Michigan, The Skillman Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.
Add to that issues of the increasingly high cost of college education compared to inflation and decreasing social mobility, and there is very little for the vast majority of Americans to "appreciate." Especially if, as Linkner seems to suggest, they also must give up their end-of-summer long weekend to appreciate what exactly? That they are blessed to live on the same planet as Josh Linkner?
Still, Linkner has a point. Middle-class Americans should reassess Labor Day. We should consider labor's past successes negotiating an equitable piece of the economic pie for industrial workers and seek--yearn for--a better deal in the modern service and information economy.
