John Stossel
Real Clear Politics
11/24/2010
Had today’s political class been in power in 1623, tomorrow’s holiday would have been called “Starvation Day” instead of Thanksgiving. Of course, most of us wouldn’t be alive to celebrate it.
Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. But the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn’t happen.
Long before the failure of modern socialism, the earliest European settlers gave us a dramatic demonstration of the fatal flaws of collectivism. Unfortunately, few Americans today know it.
The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share the work and produce equally.
That’s why they nearly all starved.
Read the rest at Real Clear Politics.
Common American Journal welcomes readers from Blazing Cat Fur who included a cautionary Thanksgiving video. Heh!
Update: The Pilgrims and Property Rights or, How Our Ancestors Got Fat and Happy by Reason TV (Video)
The Pilgrims founded their colony at Plymouth Plantation in December 1620 and promptly started dying off in droves.
As the colony’s early governor, William Bradford, wrote in “Of Plymouth Plantation“:
That which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed…
