The origins of Labor Day as a celebration of America's labor force go as far back as the 1880s and the rise of organized labor. In 1887 Colorado was one of the first states to adopt an official Labor Day, and when it was created a national holiday by act of Congress in 1889, it became the first Monday holiday. But there can be no celebration of labor without equal recognition of the jobs the laborers do.
Much has been written recently about the changing face of America's work force, from the influx of women and their efforts to gain financial and societal parity to the alleged withering of the working class to the disappearance of manufacturing and the "good jobs" they provided. These are inevitable results of changes in the types and quality of work available, and that depends on the quality of economic growth, from the smallest town to the largest city.
Certainly, economic growth must be profit-based, and no one celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit more than this newspaper. But enterprise and business development must contain equal parts of return on investment and worker well-being. That balance is becoming harder to achieve at a time of rising health care costs, increased international competition, and an almost universal aversion to risk.
That doesn't mean free enterprise is moribund, by any means. There are still almost unlimited opportunities for new capital growth, and right here in River City. As our sister publication the South Platte Sentinel pointed out earlier this week, sometimes it requires a "built it and they will come" attitude to stimulate job growth. Sometimes public infrastructure has to provide the seed bed in which private enterprise can take root and thrive.
Any effort at economic development, however, should always include the goal of job growth; not just an increase in the number of people gaining employment, but also the bettering of the workers' economic well-being.
We'd like to use the occasion of this Labor Day holiday to urge those involved in private enterprise to recognize the contributions their workers make to their businesses and to the community in which we all live, and to urge community leaders to help seek and develop more jobs that pay better.