Labor Day: A well-earned day off

Americans will celebrate the working man and woman this weekend by taking a day off.

It is a day of rest that is well earned.

The rest of the year, most Americans are putting their backs into it, or their brains. They are building, banking, driving and flying. They are clicking a mouse or killing one. They are planting potatoes or mashing them. They are punching a clock or punching a cow. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week.

Face it, we are lucky to have an economy that provides jobs for almost everyone who wants one. Unemployment, in fact, has been relatively low for years, and partly reflects a natural process of job turnover that is inevitable. Despite downturns in certain industries, the overall picture of American productivity has been good.

But finding and keeping a job - and even doing it well - is only part of the story for American workers.

There is also the not-so-hidden struggle of millions of workers and working families to make ends meet. Life has been good for us as a nation since the end of World War II, but we are living in a world of increasing competitiveness, decreasing resources and ever-changing technologies that make "the good life" something of a moving target.

Start with the inevitable fact that for many families, it is impossible to make ends meet without two incomes. Sometimes that means one breadwinner who is working two jobs; sometimes it means a husband and wife both working outside the home. It certainly means sacrifice and strife and complication.

But we do it because we want to make the best lives possible for ourselves and our families. If we can, we want to leave our children better off than we were.

That, however, may not be so easy any more. The society we have built is not without costs. Our affluent way of life does not come to us free of charge. Having a brand-new car is a privilege you have to pay for - and pay a lot. Buying a home is the American dream, but it's one that is increasingly out of reach for average wage earners. Putting 50 percent of your paycheck toward a mortgage is almost a guarantee of increased debt and stress in the coming years, but it's not uncommon.

Then there are the many government services and entitlements we have built into our system. Those all have to be funded by taxpayers one way or the other. Ditto our demands for better health care, better education, better this and that. It all comes out of the workers' wallets.

And when all is said and done, the many things we are working for today make it almost impossible to save for tomorrow. Retirement is likely to be the one luxury that many of us will not be able to afford, no matter how hard we work.

So when you sit down this weekend to enjoy the company of your family and friends, it is worth reflecting on how much we have accomplished together, and how much it all costs.

The tally is still being figured.