I received this Thanksgiving article below from Dan Peterson at the Orlando Coalition for Property Rights - www.proprights.com .
Read this and discuss with your families during Turkey day.
It is a short story how the original Pilgrims started out in 1607 as a socialistic commune, and everything was shared. Many stopped working and were taking from those that worked, thus fewer had motivation and they were dying off from starvation. So, their INVESTORS came to the US and introduced Property Rights by giving every Pilgrim family some land, which changed their entire outlook towards work, and saved the day and resulted in American being one of the richest nations.
Most other countries do NOT have property rights laws like the US. A major result of property rights is owners can borrow against the value of land and invest in creating or growing businesses. That is how America became a rich country, not through socialism.
Read about it below, and there are links to other similar stories about the Pilgrims
Vance Jochim
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How property rights saved the pilgrims - from Dan Peterson at Coalition for Property Rights
What do property rights have to do with Thanksgiving?
The year was 1607 when the pilgrims landed in Virginia at what was to become Jamestown. Thirteen years later, another colony was established in Massachusetts called Plymouth.
Both colonies were founded as communal settlements with collective-interest economies in which all workers received equal benefit, regardless of individual labor or output. These early settlements floundered and experienced massive starvation.
The Problem
In one firsthand account, the "starving time" was not attributed to any "barrenness or defect on the country...which boasted plentiful fish, game, fruits, and nuts; but surprisingly, to a lack of industrie."
Investigators sent by colony investors in England quickly identified the collectivist arrangement as the primary source of the low morale and productivity issues.
In other words, spreading the wealth was killing motivation, lowering productivity, and destroying these early communities.
The Solution
To solve these problems, private property ownership and property rights were introduced.
Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony explained what happened in his now famous passage on private property in Of Plymouth Plantation. It was decided to "set corn every man for his own particular...And so assign every family a parcel of land...This had very good success for it made all hands very industrious."
The Result
By 1623, just 16 years since the first Jamestown settlers arrived, all land holdings were converted to private ownership. By 1750, private farms were predominant in New England. By 1775, the American economy was a hundred times larger than in the 1630s. The colonists enjoyed a much higher standard of living than their parents or grandparents. Their per capita income of $60 made them the richest in the world at the time.
Principles for All Time
The principles of private property ownership and the right to use that property not only saved the pilgrims. It made our nation the most prosperous and freest in history.
We study history to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. The pilgrims left us with an important lesson we should remember every day of the year. If we allow these important rights and freedoms to wither away, we do so at our own peril.
As one who lived in Moscow, Russia for 14 years, this author had ample opportunity to observe how the collectivist, socialist, communist efforts to move "Forward" (the Communist Party slogan) not only killed motivation, but enslaved people reducing them to animals. Study the nations of the world and you will find those nations with little to no property rights are ruled by dictators and remain the poorest on the globe.
This year as we celebrate Thanksgiving, remember we do so because one of our nation's foundations has been and is property rights. But, let us not stop at giving thanks. Let us press on to renew our commitment to insure those rights are fully restored and protected.
Remember the words on colonist Arthur Lee of Virginia, "The right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive people of this, is in fact to deprive them of their liberty."
That is why CPR's mission is to:
Promote and Protect Private Property Rights
Thank you for participating in this ongoing battle to keep America the land of the free and the home of the brave.
To read a fuller account of those early colony experiences, we recommend you read the article by Tom bethel of the hoover Institution, "How Property Rights Saved the Pilgrims." It can be viewed at:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3507051.html
From CPR, best wishes for a joyous Thanksgiving.
Dan Peterson, Executive Director
[email protected]
407-481-2289
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Also see:
Hoover Institute
http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/6580
Students for Liberty – Be Thankful for Property Rights
http://studentsforliberty.org/blog/2011/11/23/be-thankful-for-property-rights/
