Issue 17

By David Thomas Graves

The Forgotten Truth About Labor

From the Fields to the Founders to the Picket Line

What is labor?

Not in a slogan. Not in a contract clause. Not in a talking point. But at its core? Labor is time. Labor is energy. Labor is the act of alienating a piece of your life to someone else, in exchange for something that will help you survive.

It’s the most basic form of human exchange. And yet, somewhere along the way, we forgot what it actually means. We started defining labor by what it produces instead of what it costs. We started treating it as a number on a spreadsheet instead of what it actually is: The transfer of property, your property, your time, your mind, your body.

Labor Is Not a Product, It’s a Sacrifice

Historically, labor wasn’t just treated as work. It was treated as property in motion. Jefferson understood this. Lincoln understood this. Even the framers of our tax laws understood this, which is why, for most of American history, labor was not taxed. Because how can you tax something that belongs to you by nature? How can a government put its hand on something it did not create?

To the early American mind, labor was sacred. It was yours. You could alienate it, trade it voluntarily, but you could not be forced to give it. Because forced alienation of labor was the very definition of slavery.

That’s the language used by the abolitionists, not just moral or spiritual arguments, but economic and human ones. They didn’t just say slavery was wrong because it was cruel, they said it was wrong because no man should ever be forced to alienate their labor without their consent.

That’s what the labor movement grew out of.

The Blood That Built the Movement

When we say “workers died for labor,” we don’t mean it metaphorically. We mean real deaths. Real men and women, shot, beaten, jailed, fighting for the right to own their time. Not in some foreign war. Right here. On the rails of Chicago. In the coal mines of West Virginia. In the textile mills of Massachusetts.

They weren’t dying for democracy. They were dying for dignity. The dignity to say: “My time has value. My body is not yours. My labor is not free.” Every contract fight. Every picket line. Every strike. 

It was all rooted in that single idea: You do not have the right to take what I did not agree to give.

And Then We Forgot

But over the last hundred years, something changed. We stopped talking about labor as property. We stopped talking about time as sacred. We started talking about GDP, quarterly profits, job numbers, everything but the people doing the actual work.

The theft of labor got bureaucratized. Sanitized. Legalized. And worst of all? Normalized.

Now we’re so used to losing a little more of our lives every year, to taxes, to inflation, to meaningless jobs and meaningless wages, that we’ve started to believe that’s just the way it is.

But it’s not.

The truth hasn’t changed. Labor is still property. And forced alienation is still theft. The only thing that’s changed is how well they’ve hidden the chains.

Labor Needs a Reckoning

Unions were built on the idea that labor has value, that people should be paid fairly for the time they give, and that no one should be forced to alienate their labor without dignity, representation, or return. Nothing is more capitalistic, nothing is more free market, than individuals forming a private organization where they pool their private property together in order to negotiate better wages and conditions. Nothing is more free market. Nothing is more rooted in the fundamentals of market theory and dynamics.

But if we forget what labor is…

We forget what we’re fighting for. And if we forget what we’re fighting for,  We’ll never understand what we’re losing.

Time, Sweat, and the Things You Can’t Get Back

Let’s stop talking theory. Let’s talk real life.

Let’s talk about what labor feels like.

Not in a textbook. Not in a bargaining clause. Not in the bullet points of a benefits sheet. But in your body. In your joints, your back, your wrists. In the alarm clock that robs you of sleep. In the sore knees you ignore so you can show up again tomorrow. In your kid’s eyes when you miss another game. In your partner’s voice when they say, “You’re never here anymore.”

Because that’s where labor actually lives.

Not on the job site. Not in the call sheet. Not on the timecard. Labor lives in what you give up to get that paycheck.

Labor Is Time

Every human being is born with 24 hours a day. That’s it.

You don’t get more because you’re talented. You don’t get more because you’re rich. You don’t get more because you’re hard-working.

Time is the great equalizer, and the first thing labor demands of you. You trade your mornings. You trade your evenings. You trade holidays, birthdays, weekends, funerals.

Labor doesn’t care what day it is. It cares what deadline it serves.

And once that time is gone, it’s gone forever. You can’t earn it back. You can’t store it. You can’t re-live it.

That’s the first real cost of labor. Not money. Time.

Labor Is Skill

Time by itself is just potential. Skill is what turns that potential into value.

You study. You practice. You make mistakes. You stay late and show up early. You train others. You get trained. You master the little things, the angles, the timing, the details no one sees but everyone depends on. Skill is the craftsmanship of labor. It’s your fingerprint on the work.

But skill costs, too.

It costs frustration. It costs failure. It costs years of not being paid what you’re worth while you prove your value to people who don’t respect the process.

Labor Is Experience

Experience is what happens when skill meets repetition, under pressure, for a long time.

It’s your sixth sense. It’s the split-second decision that prevents an accident. It’s the calm you bring when everything’s falling apart. But here’s the catch: Experience doesn’t just cost you time, it costs you your body. It costs your knees. Your sleep. Your stress levels. Your mental health. Your relationships.

Experience makes you valuable. But it also makes you tired.

Labor Is Sacrifice

And that’s the part no spreadsheet can capture.

The real cost of labor is invisible. It’s the little voice in your head that says, “You’re missing everything.” It’s the cold dinner reheated in the microwave. It’s the empty seat at the school play. It’s the text that says “We miss you,” when you’re out pulling 14.

Labor is emotional currency. And most of us are paying in overdraft.

Labor Is Value

And after all that, after time, skill, experience, and sacrifice, you finally get what they call value.

You get your paycheck. That’s what you’re handed in return for all of it. A number in a digital account. A wage that, if you’re lucky, covers the cost of survival, maybe a vacation, maybe a used car.

But you know what you’re not being handed?

Your time back.

And if that paycheck is bleeding value because of inflation, debasement, and economic manipulation, Then you’re not just underpaid.

You’re being robbed.

Because value isn’t just what you earn, It’s what you’re able to keep.

This is the reality of labor. It’s not a political theory. It’s not a bargaining chip. It’s not a budget line.

It’s time. It’s sweat. It’s the things you can’t get back.

And if we can’t protect what we’ve given, If we can’t store it, preserve it, and pass it on, Then we’re not just working.

We’re bleeding.

And no one bleeds forever.

Why Can’t We Get Ahead?

Have you ever sat down and asked yourself that question? Why, after all these years of grinding, learning, showing up, sacrificing, does it still feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water?

Why is it that no matter how good you get. How many hours you work. How much you tighten the belt. You’re still just a few bad months away from losing everything?

The answer is simple. Because we’ve been taught to store our labor in a broken container. The system says. Trade your time for money. Save that money in a bank. Work until you’re 65. Then enjoy what’s left. But what if the container leaks? What if the dollars you saved can’t buy what they used to? What if the retirement you planned for gets priced out from under you?

Because if you’re saving your labor in a currency designed to lose value, then what you’re doing isn’t preservation. It’s slow-motion theft. And it’s not your fault. You’re doing everything right. The system is what’s broken.

The Weight of the Trade

Let’s be honest. Most of us have already missed too much. Too many firsts. Too many family dinners. Too many quiet, irreplaceable moments we gave away for a paycheck. And if that paycheck can’t even preserve the value of those moments?

Then what the hell are we doing? Because the purpose of labor isn’t just survival, it’s supposed to be redemption. Redemption for the time we gave up. The gift we give our families in the end, when we can finally say, “It was all worth it.” But if you can’t save what you earned, If you can’t buy back even a fraction of the time you gave up.

Then you didn’t trade your labor. You gave it away.

What Are We Even Fighting For Anymore?

The System Is Broken. We Know It. So Why Are We Still Playing by Its Rules? We’re not losing this fight because the enemy is too powerful. We’re losing because we forgot what we were fighting for. We let the contract become the goal. We let the pension become the prize. We let stability become the substitute for freedom.

And somewhere in all of that, we stopped asking the most important questions.

• Where is this all leading?

• What are we actually building?

• And who gets to keep what we’ve built?
  
  

Because if we’re being real, we’re doing everything they told us to do. And we’re still losing.

We’re Working More and Owning Less

Go ahead, look around. People are working longer hours than ever. Productivity is higher than it’s ever been. And yet…we’re less financially secure than our parents were. You think that’s a coincidence? You think that just happened? No. It was engineered.

We were sold a story, one that made sense for a while: “Work hard. Save. Retire. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.” But what they didn’t tell us was that the fruit would rot before we could eat it. Because the wages we fought for are being debased every year. The pensions we trusted in are being gutted by inflation and underfunding.

And the retirement we imagined? It’s evaporating while we’re still on the job.

We Let Ourselves Believe the Lie

We believed that if we just held the line, If we just got that next contract, If we just kept the machine running, Eventually it would pay off. 

But here’s the truth: The system was never designed to pay off.

It was designed to keep working people productive, distracted, and placated just enough to avoid revolt.

They gave us just enough to stay quiet, To go home, crack a beer, and tell ourselves, “It could be worse.” And then they hollowed out everything beneath us. Healthcare became a negotiation tactic. Pensions became IOUs. Wages stagnated while the price of everything climbed. And we, the people who make this country run, started walking on economic quicksand.

We Have Power, But No Leverage

And the unions? We’re not innocent in this either. In too many cases, we became managers of decline instead of leaders of resistance. We fought for COLAs instead of capital. We fought to preserve what we had, instead of building what we deserved.

We forgot that labor isn’t just about getting a better deal, it’s about reshaping the entire table. We let politicians court us every four years with nice words and no action. We let central banks erode our earnings and called it “policy.” We let Wall Street profit from our pensions while we couldn’t afford to retire.

So What Now?

We’re not broke because we don’t work hard.

We’re broke because our value is being drained faster than we can create it. We don’t need more hours. We need a new vessel. A new standard. A new way to store the value of our labor that can’t be stolen by policy or printing. Because this isn’t just about inflation.

This isn’t just about economics. This is about dignity. This is about ownership. This is about whether the time you gave up… will ever come back to you in a form you can pass on.

Because if you can’t store your labor… You can’t pass it to your kids. You can’t protect your partner. You can’t retire with peace. You’re just a worker on a treadmill that speeds up every year, while they pretend that’s what freedom looks like.

What Do We Really Want?

We want control.

We want sovereignty.

We want to know that the work we put in, won’t be erased by a spreadsheet in Washington or a banker in New York. We want to know that we can miss the game and still give our kid a future. That we can lose the weekend and still leave a legacy. That the trade we made, time for money, wasn’t a scam. But until we find a way to protect what we’ve earned.

We’ll keep fighting the same battles. Signing the same contracts. Making the same sacrifices. And falling further behind.

Bitcoin Is the Labor Movement’s Insurance Policy

The Fight to Preserve Our Labor Ends Where the Chain Cannot Be Broken

This is it. The part they don’t want us to say out loud. The labor movement is under financial siege. Not by accident. Not by incompetence. By design. We live under a system where the money we’re forced to use.

Is the very weapon used to weaken us. 

They don’t need to outlaw unions. They just need to debase the dollar.

They don’t need to raid our offices. They just need to freeze our accounts.

They don’t need to stop our rallies. They just need to make it impossible to fund them.

And if you think that’s dramatic, look around.

Ask the Canadian truckers whose bank accounts were frozen for standing up, not for violence, not for crime, but for protest. Ask the union leaders who supported them, who were arrested for peaceful assembly, had their personal and organizational accounts frozen, and then, insult to injury, were told they had to post bail without access to their own money.

Ask the workers in Argentina, Turkey, and Lebanon, whose life savings were wiped out by central banks playing games with fiat currency. Ask the union organizers across the globe who aren’t silenced by bullets, but by banking bans, blocked wire transfers, and account closures designed to crush resistance without ever filing a charge.

And then ask the 1.5 billion working people, men and women who wake up every day ready to labor, yet live without access to the global financial system. No bank account. No liquidity. No seat at the economic table.

This is what control looks like. Not in theory, in real life.

They don’t have to outlaw unions. They just have to freeze your funds. They don’t have to stop you from striking. They just have to shut down the platforms you depend on.

And if you think it can’t happen here, It already has.

Because the war against labor isn’t just waged at the bargaining table anymore.

It’s waged in the balance sheets. In central banks. In silent economic policy.

Bitcoin Breaks Their Grip

This is why Bitcoin matters. Not because it’s trendy. Not because it’s speculative. But because it’s the only tool we have that can’t be frozen, devalued, or stolen by the very systems designed to control us.

This is why Bitcoin matters to the labor movement. Because it protects the fruits of our labor. Because it defends our right to organize, to speak out, to fight back, without fear of economic punishment. Because it puts working people back in control of their value.

This is why it matters to every working family in this country, and every working family across the world.

Because when you can’t store your labor, When you can’t protect what you’ve earned, When your value is at the mercy of someone else’s policy, You are not free.

Bitcoin changes that. It’s not just a currency. It’s a declaration. We will not be controlled. We will not be devalued. We will not be erased.

We are labor. We are value. And this time, we’re keeping what’s ours.

The System Can’t Be Reformed, It Has to Be Replaced

We’ve tried everything else. We’ve negotiated. We’ve bargained. We’ve lobbied. We’ve voted. And still, the value of our labor keeps dropping. Still, we watch pensions shrink. Still, we see our kids priced out of housing. Still, we pay more and more for less and less.

Bitcoin isn’t a protest. It’s an exit. An exit from a financial system built to strip labor of power. An exit from inflation. An exit from debasement. An exit from the plantation of fiat money.

Collective Bargaining Gave Us Wages. Bitcoin Can Give Us Wealth.

Collective bargaining has been the greatest tool of the 20th-century labor movement.

But it has limits. It can’t stop inflation. It can’t protect savings. It can’t preserve capital across generations. Bitcoin doesn’t need to be ratified. It doesn’t wait for the employer to sign off. It doesn’t ask permission. It defends your labor with math, not politics. It gives working people a place to store their value that grows with time, not shrinks.

It allows us to protect what we’ve earned, even when the world around us collapses.

No One Can Take It From Us

That’s the final truth. The reason why governments, media, and financial elites try so hard to smear Bitcoin? Because they can’t touch it. If we fund our union reserves with Bitcoin, no regime can freeze it.

If we pay our lawyers with Bitcoin, no account can be shut down. If we defend our members using Bitcoin, no politician can stop it. It is uncensorable. Unconfiscatable. Unbreakable. And for a movement built on the sweat, time, and sacrifice of its members, It’s the first true defense we’ve ever had that can’t be bargained away, legislated out, or taxed into oblivion.

This Is the Moment

This is about more than inflation.

It’s about power. It’s about whether the working class will continue to be controlled by the currency of our oppressors, or whether we’ll build a future where we control our own value. 

Bitcoin is not just a technology. It’s a picket line that never fails. A strike fund that can’t be touched. A legacy that can be passed on, unbroken. It is the first and only monetary tool that respects labor by design, because it doesn’t let anyone take it from you.

And if you believe in labor.

If you believe in freedom.

If you believe that your time is worth more than a number on a spreadsheet.

Then it’s time to stop asking permission. It’s time to adopt Bitcoin.

Because if the 20th century was about fighting for our wages, Then the 21st century must be about protecting our wealth.

Once and for all.

© David Thomas Graves 2025