An article entitled, “SHAME: Here Are All The Retail Outlets Opened On Thanksgiving” says: “Employers who make their employees work on Thanksgiving do a serious disservice to the nation and to the social fabric of society.”
I could not possibly disagree more.
There is no such thing as “a nation” or a “fabric” to whom you do a disservice. You can do a disservice to yourself, or to an individual person, or to a code of values–but not to a nation. A nation only means something because it is based on a code of values–right or wrong principles, good or bad ones.
In America, unlike any other nation in history, the code of values included economic freedom, individual liberty, free enterprise, self-initiative and individualism. At root of it all was the idea of sovereignty over your own individual mind, body and actions, so long as you don’t initiate force against or defraud others. Those values are on the verge of becoming illegal so far as some are concerned, but those are the values and principles of America’s founding, all the same. Staying open or not open on a holiday is up to the judgment of the owners of the company and–indirectly–to the staff and employees who are free (particularly in a free economy filled with jobs) to go elsewhere if they don’t like it. Companies–especially large ones–are trying to stay ahead, stay profitable and stay afloat. This serves the interests of the employees as well, at least the ones who wish to keep their jobs or who perhaps want a greater stake or involvement with the company, over time.
I can see good, rational reasons for closing a business on a holiday like Thanksgiving as well as staying open. It’s the idea that you’re somehow offending a “nation”–a nation that’s supposed to be based on capitalism and economic freedom, no less–that I find repugnant, particularly on Thanksgiving.
This article was presumably written by a conservative. With “friends” like this, advocates of individual rights, personal/economic freedom and America’s Constitution have quite a battle on their hands against the totalitarian leftists.
Follow-up comments on social media:
A reader: Most companies don’t “make” their employees work on holidays. There are many people out there who truly need and welcome the additional pay many businesses offer for holidays. Many singles and people who live alone have no problem working. Self-important meddling do-gooders have to stop projecting their work issues onto others!
Dr. Hurd: Correct. You can not “MAKE” anyone do anything in the absence of coercion. If an employer says to an employee, “You’re free to work here, or free to go, but these are the terms”, this is NOT force. If someone holds a gun to your head, or threatens to kill or physically harm you, or steal your property, if you don’t work for them–that’s force. It’s called slavery. It’s astonishing to me that so many Americans don’t grasp the difference.
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