1620 -Plymouth Plantation and the Pilgrims

I posted this back in February, but since Thanksgiving is coming and since Thanksgiving's origin is with the Pilgrims, I figured it might be worth another look. Since we are about 10 months into Utopia, and the government has already taken over most of the financial markets, two of the three domestic auto companies, is about to take over the health care industry, and on the horizon is the takeover of the energy industry. By the way, did you see that the only car company to show a profit was Ford, the only auto company that DIDN'T take a government bailout.

When the Pilgrims first landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the Fall of 1620, Governor William Bradford set up the colony so that everyone would work for the good of the colony and all the output was to be shared. In other words, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need". A Socialist Society. The winter of 1620-21 was extremely harsh and about half of the colony died. Many of the colonists in subsequent years refused to work the fields and preferred to steal food. Governor Bradford wrote that the colony was riddled with corruption, confusion, near famine, and discontent. The crops were small because they were repeatedly stolen until they were almost inedible. This situation continued through the winters of 1621-22 and 1622-23.

The harvest of 1623 was different. The harvest that summer was very large and ended all the theft and famine. In fact, by the summer of 1624, the colonists had produced enough corn to start exporting the surplus.

What changed?

Governor Bradford abandoned Socialism. He gave each household a piece of their own land, and said they could grow their own crops and keep or trade them away as they saw fit. Production soared. He had basically replaced Socialism with the Free Market System. As they say "the rest is history".

With our new Democrat Administration in Washington we are rapidly abandoning the proven Free Market System and headed toward a Socialist Society. Our economy will show the results of that in the coming years. We are headed for an era of slow if any growth, high unemployment, and continuing recession. Right now we are doing exactly what FDR did in the early '30's and I assume we all know where that led us. The Liberals don't want the economy to not thrive, but they want control of our lives through regulation, redistribution of wealth, and government intrusion into your life. As a result, the economy cannot thrive, and will not until regulations are reduced, taxes are cut, and the Government gets out of our lives, and we revert to a free market system.

P.S. The info about the Pilgrims I got online from the Ludwig von Mises Institute.