The Labor Day Debate: Why We Should Celebrate Excellence, Not Just Work

A discussion between Mark Pellegrino and Michael Liebowitz on The Capitalist Corner. Watch the full episode below.

Labor Day has come and gone, but the conversation it sparked between hosts Mark Pellegrino and Michael Liebowitz on The Capitalist Corner deserves deeper examination. Their debate touched on fundamental questions about what we value as a society and whether our cultural celebrations inspire excellence or merely validate the status quo.

The Case Against Labor Day as Currently Conceived

Michael Liebowitz pulled no punches in his critique of Labor Day, arguing that it represents a broader cultural tendency to "celebrate mediocrity" rather than exceptional achievement. His position wasn't an attack on workers themselves, but rather on the philosophy underlying the holiday.

"I think that people, a lot of the time, like to celebrate mediocrity," Michael argued. "They like to celebrate the normal, not the exceptional. So labor, you know, when people speak of labor and all the wonderful things labor does, I think what they try to do is elevate normal, ordinary people to an above ordinary... normal place so that they can praise them and celebrate them."

His frustration centered on what he sees as a cultural inversion of priorities: "It's not the inventors, the creators, the entrepreneurs, the geniuses who advance civilization. It's the guy who... carries things, you know, sacks of wheat around or whatever."

This isn’t just elitism. Michael's argument rested on supply and demand: "Your day labor... in far, far more numbers of them are in far more supply than are your entrepreneurs and your inventors. But yet we don't celebrate the entrepreneur and inventor. And in fact, many times they're disparaged and put down, whereas we celebrate labor."

The Root of the Problem: Misunderstanding Value Creation

Mark Pellegrino offered a different interpretation, while arriving at similar conclusions. He argued that the issue isn't a malicious celebration of mediocrity, but rather a fundamental misunderstanding of how value is created.

"People don't understand that," Mark explained, referring to the primacy of mind in human achievement. "They think... for many, many years, it was labor. It was muscle that... seemed to make things change, not... the mind."

The problem, according to Pellegrino, is one of visibility: "Because labor is touchable, right? It's tangible... it must be so, and the labor of the mind is not so it must not be so... What they don't see is the mental labor that goes into the organization of capital... They don't see the mental labor that goes into the design of something or to the invention of something. They just see the people building it."

This connects to Frédéric Bastiat's concept of the seen and unseen - people focus on the visible physical work while ignoring the invisible intellectual work that makes it possible and productive.

The Aspiration Imperative

Both hosts agreed on a crucial point: society benefits when we celebrate excellence and encourage aspiration rather than accepting wherever we happen to be. This isn't about putting people down - it's about lifting them up by providing worthy examples to emulate.

"I need heroes to aspire to. I need examples of greatness to move towards," Michael declared. "That's what moves civilization forward. That's what moves an individual life forward is striving for greatness, striving to be better, not striving for a 40 hour work week."

Mark expanded on this theme by contrasting past and present cultural attitudes: "The culture at one time looked at matinee idols and models as... iconic figures. They looked at them as heroic, something to strive... for. Now they're seen as unrealistic goals for women... and or men that... makes them feel... comparatively worse... we now have a culture that reaches down... as opposed to inspiring us to reach up."

Making Work Aspirational

The conversation took a constructive turn when Mark suggested how to apply these principles practically: "If we're working at a job that's just something that pays the... bills, how can you make it the best possible thing for yourself, not just a stepping stone to something bigger, but how can you enjoy that 40 hours a week that you're working at that job? How can you make yourself the best possible employee?"

This reframing is crucial. The issue isn't that all work is mediocre, but that we shouldn't encourage people to be satisfied with mediocre performance in whatever work they do. Excellence can be pursued at any level.

"It's okay to be aspirational, folks," Mark emphasized. "It's... a good thing to be aspirational, to... seek, to be better than you are right now... and that's partly what makes it great."

The Mind as the Source of All Progress

Their discussion culminated in recognizing the fundamental role of human intelligence in all advancement. As Michael noted in his Capitalist Thought of the Day: "The mind is what takes us from living in the woods, running around with loin cloths to living in air conditioning buildings... The human mind is what ultimately elevates the human species."

Even the most basic human tools and techniques required mental effort: "You needed a mind, even for the loincloth, for the... Fire, for shelter... everything, every advancement of humans... the simplest, most primitive to the... supercomputers that we have today, they all... came from the mind."

Reclaiming Aspiration

Rather than abolishing recognition of work entirely, perhaps we need holidays that celebrate human achievement more broadly - "free enterprise day" or "innovation day" as Michael suggested. Better yet, we could reshape how we think about Labor Day itself.

Instead of celebrating the mere fact that people work, we could celebrate the human capacity to work intelligently, to improve, to innovate, and to aspire to excellence. We could honor not just the muscle that builds, but the mind that designs, the vision that guides, and the courage that risks.

The debate between Michael and Mark  ultimately points toward a more complete understanding of human achievement - one that recognizes both the necessity of work and the primacy of thought, both the value of effort and the irreplaceable role of excellence in driving civilization forward.

In a culture increasingly prone to participation trophies and lowered standards, their call for aspiration over acceptance deserves serious consideration. We don't elevate people by celebrating mediocrity; we elevate them by inspiring excellence.

As Michael concluded: "Most people, I believe, that have an intact brain are capable of far more than what they're currently accomplishing. And in order to do that, we need to set goals. We need to dream big and we need to work hard. And the system that allows us to do that is capitalism."

This is the real message of aspiration - not that some people are inherently better than others, but that every person is capable of more than they're currently achieving. The question is whether our culture will inspire them to reach for it or encourage them to settle for less.

A culture that celebrates mediocrity is a culture that's given up on human potential. And a culture that gives up on human potential has already begun its decline.