The image above shows the entrance to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp, operated by the German Nazis, with its encouraging welcome message:
Arbeit Macht Frei
Which can be translated as “Work Makes You Free”, or alternatively, as “Work Liberates”.
I wanted to write this morning about work and freedom, and I felt this photo could introduce the subject in an appropriate manner. Unfortunately, our Daily Post editor frowns on humor about concentration camps, so I will forego all my planned jokes related to Nazis.
At any rate, I didn’t really want to get political this morning. There’s entirely too much political humor going on in America these days, for anyone who still feels like laughing.
And entirely too little humor about work making us free.
A recent survey of American workers — a group of which I consider myself a card-carrying member — was discussed on the website Moodle.com in an article titled ‘Job Burnout at 66% in 2025, New Study Shows’
New research from Moodle (conducted by the research consultants at Censuswide) shows that 66% of American employees are experiencing some sort of burnout in 2025.
I can attest that many of those American employees are journalists.
We have to wonder, however, if we can believe information supplied by a company with a silly name like “Moodle”? I suspect the company founders meant to call the company, “Noodle” — which at least has an authentic meaning — but someone typed a wrong letter when submitting their incorporation documents.
A different report on American workers was published by the Economic Innovation Group, and came to a somewhat different conclusion. They made their report public, here.
According to ‘The American Worker Project’, most American workers are either “Very satisfied” or “Moderately satisfied” with the work they do. On the whole. In spite of burnout, in other words.
About 15% reported some level of dissatisfaction. So we can assume that numerous journalists were included in the survey.
Okay, so we have some burnout, and yet we have some feelings of satisfaction. But what about work making you free? It didn’t seem to work too well in the Nazi concentration camps. (Sorry, I simply couldn’t resist making that comment. My apologies to our editor.)
From Elvtr.com, ‘America’s Alarming (Lack of) Work Life Balance’:
Once renowned as the land of the free, America has become the land of the fatigued. The average American toils for an extra 400 hours annually compared to their counterparts in other developed nations.
In other words, we’re ‘free’ to work harder, but we have less ‘free’ time.
And if we really want to compare ourselves to workers in “other developed nations” — something I don’t necessarily recommend — we must note that those other nations provide ‘free’ health care, while we work an extra 400 hours trying to cover our health insurance payments, and probably not succeeding.
Vacations? According to Elvtr.com, about two-thirds of American workers (68%) do some amount of work while on their vacations. Assuming they even take vacations.
What does ‘vacation’ even mean? Writing my column in a coffee shop in some resort town that I hardly get to enjoy? While paying way too much for my vacation rental?
But please understand, I’m not complaining. It could be worse. Much worse. I could be in a concentration camp.
Like the hard-working documented and undocumented immigrants currently getting locked up in federal detention camps.
I supposed the least we can do is remind those immigrants that ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.