Why you can’t wear white after Labor Day: Reflections on America’s post-Christian future
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2023
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did the tradition that you can’t wear white after Labor Day begin? And what does it say about our culture that the tradition no longer holds as much sway? In other news, China has fallen on significant economic hard times in recent years. If that can happen to such a world superpower, should America still feel confident about its present and future? And what role should we play as Christians in our secularized, post-Christian nation?
Author: Jim Denison, PhD
Narrator: Chris Elkins
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good day and welcome to the Daily Article podcast for Tuesday, September 5th, |
| 0:07.0 | 2023. Today's article is written by Dr. Jim Denison and narrated by Chris Elkins of the Denison Forum. |
| 0:14.0 | There was a time when wearing white after Labor Day was a social faux pop. |
| 0:19.0 | One explanation is that wealthy people could afford to |
| 0:21.7 | vacation during the hot summer months and left their city clothes behind in favor of lighter, |
| 0:26.9 | whiter summer outfits. When fall arrived and the privileged upper class returned to the city, |
| 0:32.6 | they donned their darker, more formal clothing. That was then, this is now. Nearly 85% of all Americans plan to travel the summer. |
| 0:40.3 | Here's another Labor Day factoid. In the late 19th century, American laborers worked for 12 hours per day on average in poor conditions, |
| 0:49.3 | leading to protests and the formation of labor unions. The Central Labor Union of New York City |
| 0:55.6 | then staged the first Labor Day holiday on this day in 1882. 12 years later, President Grover |
| 1:02.9 | Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September an annual federal holiday. |
| 1:08.3 | All that to say, Americans have made great progress in many ways across |
| 1:11.9 | recent generations. The average size of our homes has nearly tripled since 1950, for example. |
| 1:17.7 | Technological innovations from air conditioning to the internet have greatly enhanced our daily lives. |
| 1:23.5 | By contrast, our greatest geopolitical competitor has fallen on significant hard times in recent years. |
| 1:30.3 | Axios notes that China's economy, following its reopening after the pandemic, |
| 1:36.3 | has been plagued by weak growth, falling prices, a popped real estate bubble, and mass unemployment among young adults. Rather than dealing with these problems, |
| 1:46.1 | China's government is hiding them. For example, after recent report showed unemployment among young |
| 1:51.8 | adults reached 21.3% in June, the government suspended the release of the data. The economist agrees |
| 1:58.9 | and, quote, China's economy won't be fixed because an increasingly |
| 2:04.0 | autocratic government is making bad decisions, end quote. The article notes that China's living standards |
| 2:10.2 | are less than 20% of America's and adds, many of its challenges stem from broader failures of |
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