Doing the jobs cypress sticks won't do

Prior to the easy-money fueled housing bust, Steve Sailer noticed a contemporary reliance on "human directionals"--people hired to walk around twirling signs at intersections in an effort to direct traffic to whatever it is said directionals are being paid a couple of bucks under minimum wage in cash to promote. Steve presciently realized we were moving diametrically away from Ben Franklin's promised land. And organized labor, instead of trying to turn the caravan around, was driving the oxen full speed ahead. Uh oh.

Comprehensive as he tries to be, though, Steve has consistently failed to mention the working-conditions angle in this whole story. See, standing up for long periods of time while being subjected to the elements is physically taxing and potentially hazardous to worker health. With this concern as their guiding light, labor leaders in several communities across the country (like my own, incidentally) pushed for legislation forbidding the use of free standing marketing materials. Wooden and metal posts had been taking all the jobs that hard-working, new dues-payers should have been doing, while these same dues-payers were being exploited in inhumane conditions. By disallowing the use of stationary signs, businesses had little choice but to look to the menial backbone of 21st century cutting edge technological progress to fill the void.

Before:

Child slavery

After:

The American Dream

Things just keep getting better all the time.