What’s the worth of an American’s work?
If you believe that America ought to resemble feudalistic serfdom—not very much.
But since the later part of the ninetieth century when workers began organizing with fellow workers during the industrial revolution, the social and economic value of work, its worth, has been acclaimed as a valuable commodity.
Yet many through history, including the contemporary GOP, persist in believing that America's labor is not worth all that much and have endlessly fought, often violently, against the attempts of Americans to organize to sell their labor product at a reasonable price.
As the late
Sidney Lens, the great labor activist and historian, pointed out: Thousands of corpses and cracked skulls litter the battle to organize and sell American labor.
The pro-labor view, held in today's Democratic Party and organized labor, is that labor is sacred and ought to command a price sufficient to raise a family.
The right to organize to sell the American labor product was enshrined in the
Wagner Act of 1935, singed into law by FDR.
Wrote FDR in his statement signing the Wagner Act:
