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LABOR DAY SHOULD CELEBRATE THE MIND, NOT MUSCLE

Aug. 29, 2001

MARINA DEL REY, CA--Labor Day should celebrate man's mind, not his muscles, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.

The importance of knowledge to human progress is not some recent trend, but a fact of human nature, said Fredric Hamber. Man's mind is his tool of survival and the source of every advance in material well-being throughout history--from the harnessing of fire, to the invention of the plough, to the discovery of electricity, to the development of the latest anti-cancer drug.

But muscles, not the mind, are celebrated on Labor Day because today's intellectuals, influenced by several generations of Marxist political philosophy, still believe that wealth is created by sheer physical toil.

Hamber noted that man's use of his mind is the reason for the unparalleled wealth seen in America today. He observed that:

* Under capitalism, even a man who has nothing to trade except his physical labor benefits from the labor-saving creations of inventors and businessmen, such as jackhammers and steam shovels, thus increasing his productivity and wages.

* Third World societies, which glorify physical labor over intellectual labor, are in a chronic state of starvation and material want.

* Brain drains are inevitable in any dictatorship because the creative are not free to think and act.

What Americans should celebrate on Labor Day is the spark of genius in the scientist who first identifies a law of physics, in the inventor who uses that knowledge to create a new engine or telephonic device, and in the businessmen who daily translate such ideas into tangible wealth, said Hamber.

Ayn Rand Institute senior fellow Dr. Onkar Ghate is available for interviews on this topic.

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