This day, Labor Day, is the perfect day to reflect on how harshly Government deals with the working class and the poor.

Bastiat said, "The state is the great fiction by which everyone attempts to live at the expense of everyone else". It is also the great reality by which the privileged and the powerful become more privileged and powerful at the expense of small businesses and Labor.

How much higher would the standard of living of working men and women be were their tax burden not so high? Income tax, sales tax, property tax, both paid directly to Government and in the form of higher prices on goods and services, all reduce that standard.

How much higher would the real incomes of men and women in the workforce be were there no laws and regulations reducing (in some cases, eliminating) competition among businesses, when such reduced competition means fewer jobs and thus lower wages?

How much farther up the income ladder could the children of working individuals rise were education a matter for the private sector, given that government schools favor the children of the already-affluent?

Given that every war is "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight", how many children of laborers would still be alive today were it not for what Daniel Webster called "the wickedness of government" in launching conflict after conflict?

How much healthier would members of the working class be if government did not restrict entry into the healing professions, making health care and health insurance unaffordable to so many?

How much safer would working-class neighborhoods be if authorities did not legislate what substances we may or may not ingest, given that such legislation benefits organized crime and reduces the ability of law enforcement to combat murder, rape, burglary, and child molestation?

There are so many more examples, but the point is: Government works on behalf of the wealthy and works against the workers.

So this November, vote to protect working men and women, by voting to eliminate the statutes and regulations that harm them; vote to benefit the employed by moving politicians and bureaucrats into the ranks of the unemployed.

For a level economic playing field,

Jeff Daiell

Daiell is a 2010 candidate for Texas Governor