United Liberty
Thanksgiving- A Case for Capitalism
Thu, 11/27/2008 - 11:42am | posted by Shana Kluck
We all grew up hearing the story of the first Thanksgiving- the deprivation and starvation, the help of the native Americans and the bountiful harvest that marked the first Thanksgiving.
What we rarely hear about is the method of economy the Puritans employed upon reaching the new shore- socialism. They endeavored to share the work and the fruits of their labor, eschewing the principles of private property and the free-market.
And how well did this work? Their Governor Bradford in his own words-
The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong… had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors everything else, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them.
And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it. Upon the point all being to have alike, and all to do alike, they thought themselves in the like condition, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them… Let none object this is men’s corruption, and nothing to the course itself. I answer, seeing all men have this corruption in them, God in His wisdom saw another course fitter for them.
Thankfully, the Pilgrims saw the error of their ways before they all starved to death. They divided up the land between the families, allowing each to consume what they produced and trade what they could not. The results?
They had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression…By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the faces of things were changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God.
As America moves closer and closer to a socialized society, we would do well to learn from the past, lest we repeat their mistakes.
Thank you very much indeed for the linkback, my dear. And thank you as well for writing about this absolutely critical topic.
I wish you an extraordinarily happy Thanksgiving.
So fast forward to today. We bail out or just give Citi over 50 billion dollars. Why is that not considered the worst socialism ever! Why not let them fail and go under. They do not employ that many people. If you took the 50 billion dollars and created $50,000 per year jobs you could hire 2.5 million people yes TWO AND A HALF MILLION people and have them work for TWO YEARS!!!!!!!!! Let them build roads, schools, electric cars anything would be better than socialization for the richest who do not work but sit at desks and computers all day long. No factory, no work, no building anything just pure and simple Socialism of the WORST kind for the very rich who are money changers that Jesus once threw out of the temple. We need to vote out any legislators who do not throw them out of the temple of Washington or feeding trough of Washington. Think about it, this is not facetious, what would Jesus do. Foreclosures would stop because Citi would be gone, if Citi was gone so would the house payment and that is REAL World, look it up. So you elected a legislator who is going to bail out Citi so they can foreclose upon your house driving down the price of your neighbors house so they can not sell it and have to get their house foreclosed on also because they do not have a good paying job because the government lets every factory close to off shore any and all jobs. Wake up America. It is Thanksgiving. This is the land of Capitolism no Socialism for the wealthy. Stop the bailouts with our tax money and let the money changers get thrown out of the temple in Washington so we can all stay in our HOMES!!!!!!!!!
Capitalism is far from perfect, mam. I’m not saying socialism or communism are better, though.
Dear Anonymous:
Communism is a species of socialism; and socialism is a political ideology that espouses, to any degree, the abolition of private property. That is the defining characteristic of socialism.
Both are a species of the genus collectivism, which states that the individual has no real identity apart from the so-named group.
The only alternative to private property is governmental or communal ownership of the property, both of which, in the end, amount to the exact same thing, since someone (i.e. an elite bureau of centralized planners) must delegate the “communal” property.
Capitalism, on the other hand — a word coined incidentally by Karl Marx, who explicitly called for “the abolition of private property” — is in this and every other significant way the exact opposite of socialism: by definition, capitalism is “a social system in which the inalienable rights of each and every individual are recognized in full, and all property is therefore privately owned.”
Capitalism is an entire political theory — not, as is sometimes supposed, merely economic. The exclusively economic component of capitalism may, however, be described as the right to life, liberty, and property applied to commerce and industry.
Thus your comment that “capitalism is far from perfect” completely misses the point. Capitalism is the only moral system, inasmuch as it is the only system that guarantees by law the freedom of each and every person to her own life and property — property being nothing more (or less) than an extension of person — and, corollarily, the freedom to trade that property.
This means, among many other things, that everyone is rightfully allowed to grow as filthy rich as the market will bear, and that is just one of the many reasons that no other civilization in human history has come anywhere close to producing as much wealth and (therefore) as much technological growth as the United States of America.
Indeed, in one sense you could absolutely say that capitalism is perfect — if, that is, human freedom and political justice is your goal.
Quoting the polymathic Wilhelm von Humboldt, friend of Goethe and Schiller:
Any State interference in private affairs, where there is no reference to violence done to individual rights, should be absolutely condemned. To provide for the security of its citizens, the state must prohibit or restrict such actions, relating directly to the agents only, as imply in their consequences the infringement of others’ rights, or encroach on their freedom of property without their consent or against their will. Beyond this, every limitation of personal freedom lies outside the limits of state action (Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action, 1791).
That is capitalism.
Capitalism is predicated upon the premise that no person and no government has rightful authority over any other person, which, as stated before, includes the property of each person.
Property is the vital link between economics and politics.
There exists a simple but foolproof method for distinguishing capitalism from every other social system: your rights, my rights, everyone’s rights stop where another’s begin.
If you follow that principle, and if you remember that property, including money, is merely an extension of person, you’ll never again wonder at the “perfection” of capitalism.
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