Labor Day on Cape Cod: UMASS and Profiteering

20 years ago, the wise-guys of UMASS came up with an ingenious plan to rid the Cape of those pesky college kids during the most glorious weekend of the season, so they could savor it for themselves.

My neighbor on the not-Great-Island-side-of-Lewis-Bay, is a muckamuck in the office of the President of UMASS. He is down this weeknd, enjoying the holiday, while the students of UMASS are doing the same ... only elsewhere.

Ironic isn't it. UMASS starts its fall semester the week before Labor day, requiring all those kids to leave their summer jobs on the Cape early, leaving all those seasonal businesses stranded for help the last best weekend of the summer.

But not to worry, the patrons from UMASS are still here, like my neighbor from UMASS administration. I wonder if he appreciates the irony. He conscripted the students back to campus just as he was coming back down for the weekend. Probably not, because he still complains about the service around here, (lack thereof) during this weekend. Well, dah.

For years (former State Senator) Henri Raushenbach fought to get UMASS to officially start after Labor Day, so we could keep our seasonal help one more crucial week. Little did we all appreciate who's vacations he was stepping on.

And one more observation from my beach chair this Labor Day weekend.

As I was looking out over Great Island, I heard one of those obnoxious ads by the Alliance (to save the view for the priviledged few) on the radio, repeating the lies about the birds, the fish and the air, but mostly hocking their new tactic; CapeWind stands to make a profit from the project. Holy Wampum Batman!

So now it's about profits. Isn't it strange that this has come down to the capitlists from Osterville, and may I say uber-capitalists, objecting to the capitalist from Bass River making too much money. Didn't Egan make too much money selling computers? Didn't Koch make too much money selling, well, coke? For that matter, isn't Mihos making too much money selling gas and milk? And how about Kurker making too much money selling boats?

I think what the capitalists from Osterville object to most, is that the capitalist from Bass River is making too much money in their backyard. I bet that's what grates them the most. It would be better if they were the ones doing the profiting.