My father was adamant that I should never interfere with a “working man.” He meant not crossing in front of a worker carrying bricks or pushing a wheelbarrow. I knew that his views were part and parcel of his lefty pro-union worldview.
I had to review this worldview the other day when I passed a typical smelly, nearly toothless, 40 year-old, 5’10” black street person who was sleeping in the doorway of a business at Market near 6th. A Latino, who spoke no English, was trying to clean up the area and the bum was yelling at him in a confrontational way.
Driven by my father’s views, I stopped and intervened for the workingman who was cleaning the area. I was aggressive towards the non-working inconsiderate bum. I drove the bum off, after a little physical effort, and continued on my walk.
I asked myself whether my father’s worldview, that led to this contretemps, was my view. I considered my apostasy seriously for a week.
I concluded that the part of my father’s view that honors physical work over idleness, recreation and pomp is proper. I accept it. The honor labor view developed over the past several centuries in defiance of social classes, aristocracy and elitism. It is an inherently American and democratic value. This view is also the reasons that many societies that completely disdain physical work (much of Arabia, much of India, Spanish Latin America and large parts of West Africa), will take centuries to be productive industrial societies.
I reject the part of my father’s lefty worldview that believes support of physical workers means support of labor unions. (My father was unwilling to cross picket lines.)
The triumph of labor unions in Europe, Israel and other parts of the world has not been a positive outcome. Unions have created a larger and more prosperous middle class membership for physical laborers. On the other hand they have always supported bureaucracy, opposed meritocracy, opposed hard work and striven for a decrease in the amount of work that employees do. Nice but not necessarily a positive value for commerce or the general good of society.