Few things can swell a person’s chest with justified pride as looking at the accomplishments of his own hard labor. It ranks right up there with performing an act of charity or beholding your child smiling up at you in admiration. We humans are a funny bunch. Unceasingly, instinctively we seem driven to create things. When we have grown all the food, built all the roads and all that survival stuff, we keep on building pyramids, murals, and model trains. It’s a unique part of our species. And quite naturally we place utmost value on hard work – the sweat of our brow. After all, it is that creative sweat that has impelled humanity to thrive in all corners of the globe.

In America, it has been the sweat of our combined brows that has moved us to the pinnacle of prosperity we now enjoy. Yes, our land is filled with an abundance of natural resources. And yes, we also abound in a wealth of creative entrepreneurs who risk all and launch ventures. But the third and equally necessary leg of our nation’s prosperity pyramid is that army of hard laboring men and women who hammer out all those plans and bring them to fruition. Did you know that the workers of the United States labor an average of 2200 hours a year? That’s more than any other nation on earth – including Japan, India, China or any country in Europe. We are the tops. We also are one of the few nations who believe in paying our workers enough to buy what they produce. We stand as proof that the more you value and justly compensate folks’ labor, the more prosperous we all become. So my admiration and hats off to all you hard-laboring people everywhere. May you take a moment to realize the full value of your contribution to our society. ‘Tis the sweat of your brow that enriches our world.
My thanks,
– Bart Jackson