Post by gsoflittledove on Nov 21, 2009 11:04:12 GMT 12.75
Thanksgiving, Socialism and Blocking Out Sunshine
The following is a letter from Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texas. This letter seemed appropriate not only because of the holiday season beginning next week, but also because of the changes in our federal government that are being considered at this time.
As Congress considers pulling America down the disastrous path of socialized medicine; we should pause to consider what that ideology's precursor wrought on our own shores.
We think we know the story of Thanksgiving: the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, faced a harsh winter, famine and disease, and then with the help of friendly natives learned how to survive. That only gets the story half-right. It’s nice for bed-time stories, and feel-good paintings, but it misses one the most important lessons of our early history.
The pilgrims weren’t city slickers ill-prepared for wilderness life, nor where they misguided about the challenges facing them in the New World. Yes, the native tribes were of immeasurable help, but the travails and trials of those pilgrims weren’t the result of recklessness, ignorance or chance.
No, the problems the pilgrims faced, and overcame, were of their very own making – and generally though a very faulty ideology.
William Bradford, governor of the colony, explains clearly in his own hand what happened in his History of the Plymouth Settlement. They imposed what he called “communal service.” We would recognize it as a precursor to socialism.
Everything -- the land, the work, the crops, everything -- was held communally. Everyone was expected to work hard, and receive only what they truly needed. As a result, as Bradford wrote, many would simply “allege weakness and inability.”
Bradford reported that “the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men’s wives and children, without any recompense.”
At the same time, “The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could.”
Bradford would note: “Community of property was found to breed much confusion and discontent.” No one had an incentive to work, so no one produced.
After three years, the Colony abandoned its “communal” life lest they die-off completely. Bradford wrote that the colony leaders divided the land among the families and “allowed each man to plant corn for his own household, and to trust to themselves for that.”
As a result, he wrote, “It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction.”
Private property rights carried the day, contributing to what has come to be known as the Puritan work ethic. Labor was naturally divided, not politically imposed, with everyone doing what they could do best to their own benefit – and thereby increasing the productivity and happiness of the colony.
By allowing private property and the basics of free markets, combining the local knowledge of Native Americans with the scientific techniques of Europe, the Pilgrims had a harvest bountiful beyond comparison.
The very first days of the American experience demonstrated what world history has shown repeatedly: socialism fails, and fails miserably. We have much to be thankful for – including those early settlers’ wisdom in abandoning a deadly experiment.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Michael Quinn Sullivan
& the EmpowerTexans.com Team
Histry Don't Lie ;D ;D