As we gather together this Thanksgiving, it’s easy to take abundance for granted.
Leftovers are virtually guaranteed.
It wasn't always like this.
For most of history, Thanksgiving banquets did not exist. Starvation, if not starvation, was the norm.
Today, supermarkets are stocked with exotic foods from all over the world. Most of them are more affordable than ever. Even after President Joe Biden's 8% inflationAmericans spend money less than 12% Half of our food income is half of what they spent 100 years ago.
why?
Because the free market happened. Capitalism happened.
When there is a rule of law and private property, and people feel secure that thieves and governments will not take their property, farmers find new ways to grow more on less land. Greedy entrepreneurs cut costs and deliver goods faster. Consumers have better options.
But today, many Americans are demanding that the government “fix” capitalism to destroy it and give everyone equal access to this and that.
But in countries with the most government intervention, store shelves are empty and people are going hungry.
in socialism Venezuelait's hard to find affordable food.
In Cuba, the government was trying to make everything rich. However, the suffering of the people was so great that in order to prevent starvation, the Castro family broke with communist principles and rented out the property. national land to private capitalists.
Millions of people around the world still go hungry. The cause is rarely drought, “income inequality” or colonialism, but government control. Corruption, tariffs, political self-dealing and short-sighted regulations prevent food from reaching those who need it most.
This week we celebrate the pilgrims who learned this lesson the hard way.
When they first landed in America, they tried living together. The harvest was shared equally. That seemed fair.
But it failed miserably. A few Pilgrims worked hard, but others did not, claiming they were, as colonial governor William Bradford put it, “weak and incompetent.”
They almost starved.
Desperate, Bradford tried a different approach. “With the whole family” he wrote“A plot of land has been allotted to you.”
Private land! Capitalism! Suddenly more pilgrims were working hard.
Of course they did. Now they have to store what they made.
“It made everyone very hardworking,” Bradford wrote.
He elaborated on the following lessons: “The failure of this experiment in common service, tried for several years by good and honest men, proves the emptiness of the theory… Taking away private property and owning it in community… Let it flourish.”
Four hundred years later, many Americans have forgotten what Bradford learned.
I can see why socialism is popular. The idea of one big harmonious group is comforting.
But it brings disaster.
Many disagreements already occur at family dinners. Children fight. Adult arguments. Imagine what that would be like among millions of strangers.
Collectivist systems foster dependence, stifle spontaneity, and waste resources.
The same communal conceits that nearly starved the pilgrims destroyed life in the Soviet Union and caused mass starvation in China.
If everyone is forced into the same plan, most people will take in as much as they can and produce as little as they can get away with.
Economists call this the “tragedy of the commons,” referring to commons that are managed by, say, sheep owners. Each has an incentive to breed more sheep, and the sheep eat all the grass on the commons until everyone is starved.
Only if the commons were divided up as private property would each owner agree to limit the grazing of his flock so that his sheep would have enough to eat tomorrow.
This same principle applies to many aspects of our lives. We thrive when individuals have title to their property and are confident that they can keep what they create. Then create more.
That's what the pilgrims learned. “Incentives are important.” Capitalist ownership creates America's wealth.
Every Thanksgiving, I give thanks for free markets and private property.
They are elements of prosperity.
Every Tuesday, Stossel posts a new video on JohnStossel.com about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Scammers, Fraudsters, Fraudsters and the Liberal Media's Scourge''.
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