Today is Labor Day. For some of us, it’s nothing more than the quasi-official end of Summer.

But for those of us who “labor” for the wages it takes to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, Labor Day should be something more. It should be a time for reflection on how our “labor” is treated, and valued, by the “political” class of our society whom we charge with governing us.

These days a substantial portion of the wages for which we exchange our labor end up, pretty much involuntarily, in the pocket of some unit of government or other; and it is spent in a number of ways many of us do not view as particularly essential or necessary – and we’re not even talking about the money lost to the waste or outright corruption for which this state has become well known.

The “Feds” and the State of Illinois take their generous portions from most of our paychecks before we even receive them. Crook County, our City, our schools and our park district wring their shares out of our homes and commercial property through real estate taxes. And virtually everything we buy comes with tariffs for the state, county and City.

The politicians have tried to help us forget that is country was founded, in large part, on the concept of limited government – and limited taxes.

That is why, in his first inaugural address in 1801, President Thomas Jefferson described “good government” as being “a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, [but] shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”

On a day when the politicians traditionally take every available opportunity to dissemble about jobs and labor, we don’t expect to hear this particular Jefferson quote.

That’s because, for the politicians, taking from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned is a lot easier than delivering “wise and frugal government.”