Misplaced Daily Priorities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The "Business" section is irrelevant. We need a "Work" section. "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2003\/09\/22\/misplaced-daily-priorities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Misplaced Daily Priorities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The "Business" section is irrelevant. We need a "Work" section. "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2003\/09\/22\/misplaced-daily-priorities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-09-22T18:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-02-11T23:33:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2003\/09\/22\/misplaced-daily-priorities\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2003\/09\/22\/misplaced-daily-priorities\/\",\"name\":\"Misplaced Daily Priorities\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-09-22T18:11:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-11T23:33:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/0173c85e46e7e0951fef5752bed78b6e\"},\"description\":\"The \\\"Business\\\" section is irrelevant. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Misplaced Daily Priorities","description":"The \"Business\" section is irrelevant. We need a \"Work\" section. \"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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{"id":343,"date":"2003-09-22T14:11:04","date_gmt":"2003-09-22T18:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2003\/09\/22\/misplaced-daily-priorities\/"},"modified":"2014-02-11T18:33:37","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T23:33:37","slug":"misplaced-daily-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2003\/09\/22\/misplaced-daily-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Misplaced Daily Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The \u201cBusiness\u201d section is irrelevant. We need a \u201cWork\u201d section.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLabor 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. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class \u2014 neither work for others, nor have others working for them. \u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress<\/a>, Dec. 3, 1861<\/p>\n

Well, here it is Monday again, so you\u2019re back to work. That\u2019s the rhythm of the work-week and the rhythm of life for most people. But your daily newspaper doesn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

Newspapers don\u2019t care much about the work-week. They don\u2019t care about thank-God-it\u2019s-Friday or Oh-God-it\u2019s-Monday. Monday matters to the daily newspaper only because that is the day the stock markets reopen on Wall Street.<\/p>\n

The stock markets \u2014 the business of investments and the people who live on them \u2014 are the concern of an entire section of your daily newspaper. The \u201cBusiness\u201d section. Odds are, like most people, you don\u2019t read it. That\u2019s okay \u2014 it wasn\u2019t written for you. It was written for a tiny sliver of the total readership \u2014 those who earn dividends and capital gains rather than wages.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit odd, at least from a circulation standpoint, that an entire section of the paper should be dedicated wholly to the concerns of these \u201cfew men,\u201d as Lincoln called them. Particularly since there is no corresponding section dedicated to the concerns of the great majority of people and readers \u2014 those who work for a living.<\/p>\n

It can\u2019t be good business for newspapers to disregard the concerns of the great majority while catering to these few men. Nor does it seem fair.<\/p>\n

USA Today<\/em> was probably on to something when they decided to call their \u201cBusiness\u201d section \u201cMoney,\u201d instead, but I would like to take it a step further. I would like to see a section called \u201cWork.\u201d<\/p>\n

It only seems fair, after all, that work (labor) should be treated as at least the equal of investment (capital).<\/p>\n

But of course these things are not<\/em> equal. \u201cCapital is only the fruit of labor,\u201d as Lincoln put it, a principle that came in Catholic social teaching<\/a> to be called the \u201cprimacy of labor.\u201d Primacy as in \u201cfirst,\u201d as in \u201cpriority.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Monday and you\u2019re back at work. That matters. It\u2019s more<\/em> important than the vagaries of the stock markets. Even if your daily newspaper has its priorities upside down.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"