The Cheney administration today put into effect new regulations that "streamline" the interpretation of overtime pay in the US and who qualifies to get it.... The Cheney administration today put into effect new regulations that "streamline" the interpretation of overtime pay in the US and who qualifies to get it. You may be surprised to hear that many folks--including, possibly, you--are now far too privileged to deserve overtime.

This, following in the wake of such recent innovations as enterprises whose every employee is a manager, and thus free of the burden of overtime pay (even if the only thing they manage is a wrench or a spatula), as well as the much-touted productivity increases underpinning the puzzling phenomenon of US businesses getting richer while US workers become poorer, led me to seek perspectives on this matter from history. So here are a few quotes that may be peripherally related to all this good news:

The truth shall make you free.--Jesus of Nazareth

Today machinery merely helps a few to ride on the backs of millions.--Ghandi

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.--Abraham Lincoln

Work shall make you free.--Sign over the entrance to the concentration camp at Auschwitz