This essay recounts the collectivist experiment of the first American colonists and how it failed, leading to starvation and death among the English Puritans who came to Plymouth Rock in 1620. After a couple of winters of want and privation, the colonists changed the system to one of self-interest: each family was allowed to grow and keep its own crops. The result was prosperity and plenty. The reason is simple: people will work very hard for the benefit of themselves and their families, but not for a collective in which the lazy and unproductive are given equal rewards with the industrious:
The Plymouth Colony experienced a great bounty of food. Private ownership meant that there was now a close link between work and reward. Industry became the order of the day as the men and women in each family went to the fields on their separate private farms. When the harvest time came, not only did many families produce enough for their own needs, but they had surpluses that they could freely exchange with their neighbors for mutual benefit and improvement.These simple truths are well established, and are the reason why the "Occupy" movement will fail: it is a movement of the lazy, spoiled and selfish, insisting that the world owes them a living and that it is the duty of their fellow citizens to provide it.
Read the entire essay here.
2 comments:
Stogie,
Glad that you've put this essay front and center. It's a gem, isn't it?
And thanks for the hat tip!
AOW, I have often heard people speak of this history, but this is the first time I have been able to read the details. It's a great article!
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