WASHINGTON, DC – The nation has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend, says Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.
“In particular, we should be grateful for the end of yet another experiment with Socialist government.”
The truth is that what happened over the past eight years was not the first time an attempt was made to establish Socialist governance in America. The Pilgrims experimented with Socialism when they first arrived on our shores, according to Dr. Judd W. Patton, Professor of Economics at Bellevue University in Bellevue, Nebraska.
Patton says that the Pilgrims, not having sufficient funding for their journey to the New World, received financing from two businesses, the Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth. The Virginia companies were known as “Adventurers.” And the deal imposed Socialist principles on the colonists.
In an Op-ed article authored by Patton, he noted that the “take it or leave it” contract the Pilgrims entered into with the adventurers called for the colonists to “to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock and goods of the said colony.” It also called for “all profits and benefits that are got by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any persons, remain still in the common stock until the division.”
In other words, the Pilgrims were to live in what is known today as a Socialist commune. “The Pilgrims accepted the socialist principle, ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ Each person was to place his production into the common warehouse and receive back, through the Governor, only what he needed for himself or his family,” wrote Patton.
But things didn’t work out as planned. In fact, “contrary to legend the harvests were extremely poor in 1621 and 1622. It was normal to be hungry.”
The reason: there was little incentive to work the fields. So, the Pilgrims scrapped the deal they had made with the Adventurers and adopted a free enterprise attitude, allocating to each family in the colony their own parcel of land.
Interestingly, as Patton explained, “in 1621, the Pilgrims planted only 26 acres. Sixty acres were planted in 1622. But in 1623, spurred on by individual enterprise, 184 acres were planted! Somehow those who alleged weakness and inability became healthy and strong. It’s amazing what incentive will do to improve bad attitudes!”
As Patton concluded in his Op-ed article, “The Pilgrim experience dating from 1623 was and is yet a prototype for the United States of America. They learned the hard way that: (1) Socialism does not work; it diminishes individual initiative and enterprise; (2) Socialism is not a Godly economic system; and (3) Famine and drought can be used by God to humble a people and set them on a proper course.”
Weber believes that the Republican sweep in the 2016 Presidential and Congressional elections was the result of “America re-learning that Socialism simply does not work. And so, voters decided to dismantle the Socialist infrastructure that President Obama sought to construct during his two-terms at the helm of the ship of state. The country took a sharp turn to the left in 2008 when President Obama was elected. It resulted in a Great Recession, a slow and slippery recovery and a threat to our rights as guaranteed under the Constitution. We have a Republican Congress and a Republican President and we will soon restore the Conservative balance on the Supreme Court. The stage is set for a bright, new American future.”
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