Let's Celebrate Freedom and Prosperity!

This is my last post ahead of the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Over at Capitalism Magazine, economist Richard Ebeling argues that Thanksgiving commemorates "the triumph of Capitalism over the failure of Collectivism." This he does by considering how life improved for the Plymouth Pilgrims after they abandoned their failed communistic experiment.

Ebeling summarizes how that experiment went in part as follows:

What resulted is recorded in the diary of Governor William Bradford, the head of the colony. The colonists collectively cleared and worked land, but they brought forth neither the bountiful harvest they hoped for, nor did it create a spirit of shared and cheerful brotherhood.

The less industrious members of the colony came late to their work in the fields, and were slow and easy in their labors. Knowing that they and their families were to receive an equal share of whatever the group produced, they saw little reason to be more diligent their efforts. The harder working among the colonists became resentful that their efforts would be redistributed to the more malingering members of the colony. Soon they, too, were coming late to work and were less energetic in the fields. [bold added]

Predictably, it took only a couple of years for this situation to decimate the population of Plymouth Colony.

Ebeling summarizes what the leaders decided to try instead, and the results:

[T]he elders of the colony decided to try something radically different: the introduction of private property rights and the right of the individual families to keep the fruits of their own labor.

...

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. [bold added]

Given how saturated our culture is with altruism and how popular socialism is among the young, Ebeling helpfully indicates that even the theocratic governor of Plymouth Colony had to concede that collectivism is contrary to human nature:

Was this realization that communism was incompatible with human nature and the prosperity of humanity to be despaired or be a cause for guilt? Not in Governor Bradford's eyes. It was simply a matter of accepting that altruism and collectivism were inconsistent with the nature of man, and that human institutions should reflect the reality of man's nature if he is to prosper.

It is Ebeling himself who adds here that altruism is also contrary to man's nature -- Bradford saw selfishness as "corruption" -- and his description makes it seem that the Pilgrims learned more than they did.

(But other thinkers, such as Ayn Rand, can help the interested reader see why it is bad to condemn human nature, and that conceding that point will undermine any defense of capitalism in the long run.)

Nevertheless Ebeling is right about this:

[W]hen we sit around our dining table with our family and friends, let us also remember that what we are really celebrating is the birth of free men and free enterprise in that New World of America.

Thanks to capitalism, we have the time to celebrate plenty, and easy means to understand why we are prosperous. From this informative historical essay to works like Ayn Rand's brilliant Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, there is reason to believe that we can continue to enjoy freedom and prosperity, or recover them if we ever lose them.

-- CAV