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Ah, America the Beautiful. Where good, honest hard work leads – by means of bootstraps – to the bountiful life. That’s a value we can all get behind, yes? Maybe. There are just too many unanswered questions about the nature of work, what constitutes work, and who deserves the rewards of (someone’s) hard work. Give it some thought, and consider whether we don’t all deserve a reasonable measure of security, financial or otherwise, regardless of what occupies our time.

Image credits

All images are shared under a Creative Commons license, unless otherwise noted. Where required by license, changes to the image are noted.

• Panel 1: The hayfield is by jplenio. The candidate at the lectern is by Ricinator. The journalists are by al-grishin. The purple mountains are from Needpix.com. The flag bunting is from PinClipart.com. The spacious sky photo is by MemoryCatcher. The “not lovin’ poverty wages” protestors are from a photo by Fibonacci Blue. The “on strike” sign was inserted from a photo by Martin Lopez. The little girl with arms folded is by ivanovaassol. The reaching hand with pink slip is from Piqsels. The elderly people knitting are from a photo from pxfuel.
• Panel 2: The up-close-and-personal view of the cornfield is from peakpx.com. The bicycling child and her caregiver are by Ben_Kerckx. The mother serving salad is by skeeze. The photo of the crossing guard is by Airman Ashley J. Woolridge; it is in the public domain. The inmate firefighter (in orange) and another firefighter in yellow were isolated from a photo by the California National Guard. The photo of the leased convict with a shovel is from Our Common Ground. The chain gang overseer is in reality 1912 Chicago White Sox umpire William Dineen. The woman in labor is in reality a photo by popo.uw23 of a contestant in a jalapeno eating contest.
• Panel 3: The underlying photo of the shining sea is from Pikrepo. The son shown inheriting the castle is actually the painting Washington on his Deathbed, by Junius Brutus Stearns (1810-1885); the reproduction is in the public domain.
  The two executives celebrating their good fortune are from a photo from pxfuel. They have been placed in a boardroom photographed by Phil Manker. The television image in that photo was added, built on a public domain image by Shealah Craighead.
  The “ukrainair” plane was created from a photo from ph. Hunter Biden’s image was isolated from a photo by Ben Stanfield. 
• Panel 4: The lilies of the field are from ph.

This gallery contains 4 photos