Among the many things we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving are the pilgrims who made the holiday possible by serving as the foundation stone for American civilization. In particular, we can thank them for rejecting socialism.

In the beginning, the pilgrims shared their economic output equally, without property rights. This unsurprisingly resulted in a shortage of food.

After the meager Thanksgiving harvest, the second season of collective farming and distribution proved equally disappointing. Gov. [William] Bradford had seen enough, recording that the system “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.”

So before the 1623 season, he scrapped socialist farming and replaced it with private ownership of land for each of the families. As a result of becoming responsible for their own welfare and gaining freedom to choose what to grow for consumption or trade, the Pilgrims’ productivity surged.

The rest is history.

John Stossel elaborates on the expensive lesson on the evils of socialism that the pilgrims passed on to us through American heritage:

So solid was America’s respect for property rights that 500 years later, termites of the type comprising the Democratic Party have still not been able to eat it away completely. Consequently, even if turkey is far more expensive than before Biden’s handlers took power, at least most of us still have access to turkey.

On tips from Blackjack and KirklesWorth.

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