After  being expelled from paradise, mortals are delivered by hard LABOR and have to LABOR to survive. Such complex ideas related to LABOR are better perceived from a humanistic perspective.

Laborious Survival.

In the constellation of LABOR are included ideas of pain, contortion, torture - lability, lapse, prolapse, collapse - removal of obstacles, obstetrics, parturition or "delivery", parity, motherhood, parenthood, nativity, nationalism - struggle, toil, trade - rob, robbing, robot, wright, labor politics, serfdom, pillage - and work or werk, erg and energy.

Product of Labor.

Prolific Proletariat.

The medical vistas of LABOR impinge on mother and are explored elsewhere. Here it suffices to note that the JOB or TRADE of OSBSTetricians is not to be OBSTinate but to help women in labor by removing OBSTacles to parturition. The same stress on TOIL or removal of roadblocks is found in Spanish given as TRABA and TRABAjo for obstacle and work.

Robot Robota.	Disabled on Disability.

TRADE and TRABAJO extend toward TRIPaliare, TRIPaty, TRUDno, TRUD, which in Latin, Ukrainian and Spanish illustrate that TOIL is not only hard but that it can also be a torture as when imposed by necessity or rulers who impose forced labor.

LABi links LABOR with LABile and LAPsus which extends to proLAPSE and coLLAPSE as if to point out that hard work can be detrimental to health.

Collapsing from Toiling.

WORK, werg or WERK in German should remind scientists that not all work can be reduced to ERG and enERGy. Biologic studies show that mental work or "cerebration" does not increase the consumption of calories.

ROB is perhaps the most provocative in the cluster of ideas about LABOR. ROBOT from ROB, RAB, ROBOTa, RABOTa, RABUvaty in Ukrainian and Russian point to ROBBERY and TOIL, SERF, SLAVE, and PILLAGE. The reaction of RABOTeurs or ROBOTniki or workers in French and Ukrainian against ROBOT machines and ROBBERY by machinations by profiteering global corporations inflame labor politics at least since the time of Karl Marx.

Labor Politics.

The labor rights of shipwrights and other wrights or skilled workers continue to be undermined not only by ROBOT machines but also by policies of the Bush-era presented as "compassionate conservatism". Taxes were reduced mostly for the rich and corporate income taxes stand at a low of 14 percent. Perhaps for laborers, the link of RAB or slave with ROB and ROBBERY may have a poetic poignancy since the toil of laborers, so it seems, mostly enriches the rich. Some may believe that spreading poverty among working classes is limited to "developing" countries. That is not the case. On August 28th., 2006, Ben S. Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve chairman pointed out that "policy makers must try to ensure that the benefits of global economic integration are sufficiently widely shared". "Investors" refer to the results of conservative economic policies as producing "the golden era of profitability" (New York Times of 28 August 2006). However, economists noted some negative impacts, mainly on wage and salaries which now make up the lowest share of the US gross domestic product since 1947. This stands in contrast to corporate profits which climbed to their highest share since the 1960's. Remarkably, median hourly wages for American workers declined 2 percent since 2003. The number of Americans now living in poverty is 37 million and the percentage of people in "deep poverty" is the highest since 1975. The number of uninsured stands at a record of 46.6 million or 15.9 percent, reflecting the rising costs of health coverage. Some could conclude that "compassionate conservatism" is a ploy to ROB ROBOTniks or LABORers without "compassion" of their American dream through a coalition of  "conservative" Christians and politically active evangelicals, investors, corporations and opponents of "abortion rights" and "gay rights" that empowered the Republican Party.

Testy Protests Point to Testicles.

Lablor Day - Flora and Floralia

In Rome, the festival for FLORA was celebrated the first of May but later was expanded to a six day feast starting on April 28 called "Floralia" in honor of Flora as well as "Primavera" or Spring. In fact, the whole month of APRil was dedicated to Flora - it was then when flowers "opened" or "APeRire" in Latin. It was also then that birds started to sing love songs beckoning the end of sterile winter and the return of Persephone from Hades or Hell, a signal that the fertility of Gea or Earth Mother was restored.

April Flowers for Floralia.

After "socialist" and labor organizations met at the second Socialist International Congress held in Paris in 1889, Floralia became "labor day". Soon after, every industrial country except United States and Canada celebrated Labor Day.

In 1894 the United States Congress decreed a legal "Labor Day" holiday to be celebrated every first Monday of September and the festivity expanded from a purely "labor" celebration to a celebration by all.

Pan (Bread) Nourishes All.