We are told that May Day is an international day of celebration. I spent May 1 on the west coast this year and witnessed no celebrations, only a few marches and signs. Three of them caught my eye.<\/p>\n
1. “We demand our rights.” <\/em>Somehow I suspect that the guy carrying the sign wasn’t sure what he was demanding or who was going to pay for it.<\/p>\n 2. “Banks are immoral.”<\/em> Banks provide a storehouse for money. They facilitate transactions with checking accounts and debit\/credit cards. <\/em>They provide access to capital for thousands of businesses–big and small–to keep the economy moving. I just don’t understand the point here. If banks are immoral, then what means should be employed to fulfill these critical functions?<\/p>\n 3. “More unions, more jobs.” <\/em>I understand the argument for unions; collective action places pressure on firms to provide better wages, working conditions, and benefits. The irony here is that union activity tends to be associated with job losses, especially in the private sector. Most of the jobs that have been outsourced overseas have been in union-controlled industries. Say what you want about McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, but they always seem to be hiring.<\/p>\n Of course there were other signs as well, some of them a bit more rational. My point here is that many of the demonstrators just don’t seem to understand how the economy works. I never cease to be amazed watching those who protest one system without proposing another, or those who demonstrate in favor of the very institutions and activities that create their livelihood. They say that ignorance is bliss, but this ignorance is taking a real toll on our economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are told that May Day is an international day of celebration. I spent May 1 on the west coast this year and witnessed no celebrations, only a few marches and signs. Three of them caught my eye. 1. “We demand our rights.” Somehow I suspect that the guy carrying the sign wasn’t sure what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battle4liberty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}