"This Labor Day, we're honoring 250 years of the grit, ingenuity, and determination of the hardworking Americans who made our nation great," tweets the U.S. Department of Labor.

It remains undeniable that "hardworking" and the United States of America go together. Whatever the field, hardworking U.S. laborers have sacrificed much so that the rest of us could have what we have.

It is more than just assembly lines and farm rows; more than just towers full of cubicles and shelves full of goods; more than just mills and work trucks and factories and cranes and business establishments as far as eyes can see. It is an intangible spirit and ethic that drives such labor and production, something that cannot be measured by a balance sheet nor contained in a cargo crate.