Labor Day is a day meant to honor American Laborers with a day of rest so they can spend time with their families and enjoy a long weekend. As I sit here and reflect on the meaning of the holiday I can't help but feel for the millions of American laborers who are feeling immense pressure due to current economic conditions. Inflation is ripping, companies are laying people off en masse and people are being forced to take on multiple jobs to stay afloat. Meanwhile, the federal government is doubling and tripling down on disastrous economic policy that will put more out of the workforce and increase the national debt considerably.

This is a bit of a predicament because when you combine those two factors you end up realizing it is a recursive doom loop that ends in total currency debasement and a faster spinning hamster wheel. The more the debt increases, the more people need to work and pay taxes to pay it off. It's a vicious cycle.

The feeling of increased hopelessness is palpable.

To make matters worse, the government is actively trying to gaslight you into believing that things are better than they actually are. Their deception is predominantly dependent on two factors; overt propaganda and data manipulation.

The government will tell you that "the economy is stronger than ever", "unemployment is sustained below 4% for the longest consecutive period in US history", and "wages are seeing their biggest jump in decades" and expect you to believe that everything is all well and dandy. When you take the time to sit down and dig in you'll find that the data they're pointing to is very misleading and comically manipulated. The power of their propaganda actually lies in their manipulation of the data.

The economy may be "stronger than ever" when you look at the recent employment and wage numbers. However, if you take a deeper look you'll find that jobs numbers are "up" because people are under so much pressure economically that they have been forced to go out into the workforce to acquire a second job so that they can stay afloat. Those jobs are usually poorly paying jobs found in the gig economy where people find themselves running errands for others. In the sectors of the economy where wages are rising you'll find that they are rising because people are refusing to work (read: they're striking) unless they get paid more so that they can afford to live somewhat comfortably. Companies are forced to bend the knee to accommodate a segment of their employees so that they can continue operating their businesses effectively but will likely be forced to layoff another segment of their workforce to compensate for the increased operational expenses they are taking on in the form of increased wages.

What's worse, the jobs numbers aren't actually that good. The government is openly manipulating the data on the go and hoping no one will notice. This manipulation comes in the form of data revisions that are made in the months after a headline number is released to the public.

As you can see from the chart above the data for every month of this year has ended up lower than the headline number by the second revision. The economy is nowhere near as strong as the government would lead you to believe it is. Laborers are struggling massively while the government smile fucks them in the face. Nothing makes this clearer than the latest revision, which highlights that natural born Americans are being wholly replaced by immigrant workers.

Today is supposed to be a day of rest for the American worker. However, for millions of Americans out there it is yet another day of stress. There are parents across the country currently sitting at family and neighborhood bar-b-ques trying to put on a stoic face for their children as they think about how they're going to put food on the table, pay next month's mortgage or rent bill, and how they're going to make some extra cash on the side.

This isn't what a strong economy looks like and the pain and suffering is being driven predominantly by a government that is addicted to debt and virtue signaling, which are working in tandem to make life harder for the average American. It doesn't have to be this way though. There is a way out. And the way out involves the government being stripped from as many aspects of your life as possible. The government, in its current form, serves no other purpose than to distort the free market and its ability to properly coordinate economic activity between consenting individuals. The distortion it brings to the market in the form of money printing, soaring debt, subsidies, overarching policies that create costs or insurmountable barriers to entry for entrepreneurs is the root of the stresses millions of Americans are feeling on this Labor Day.

As you take time to rest and reflect on this holiday I urge you to think about the effects government has on your quality of life and whether or not it deserves the influence it has. Try to imagine what life would be like without the government putting its thumb on the scale.

Final thought...

Strong families and sound money are the way out.