As you look around the table at the Thanksgiving feast set in front of you, remember to give thanks to the opportunity you might have never had if it weren’t for the free market.
When the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, they were seeking freedom from oppression. I’m always down for a nice cup of freedom, but, while their hearts were in the right place, their minds were not.
There was a governing system set up by the Mayflower Compact, but John Carver didn’t really do much governing. It was a stateless society with a seemingly simple Marxist, as we know it, ideology — hold the atheism. The land in Plymouth Plantation was owned by all and for all. Neither private property nor division of labor was given much thought. In reality, too much trust was given.
Throughout history, lands of communal ownership have been havens for free riders, and such was the case for the first two or so years of the colony’s existence until 1623.
Thanksgiving in the United States is, for some reason, meant to commemorate the Pilgrims’ first feast in 1621 after they survived through winter and grew a harvest, but no one seems to remember what happened afterward.
People realized that they could consume as much as they wanted, no matter how much they produced. In turn, as the years went on, the food supply decreased, the ‘thanks’ were shortened, and the feasts were few. Slowly but surely the Pilgrims ran out of food.
It wasn’t until the spring of 1623 that the Pilgrims accepted the idea of private property. The community got together and assigned every family a parcel of land proportionate to the number of members in the family, deciding everyone would grow his or her own food from then on. And we see how this turned out from the writings in the diary of their to-be governor, William Bradford:
“This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more [corn] was planted […] and gave [far] better [content]. The women now [went] willingly into [the field], and [took] their [little ones] with them to set [corn].”
From this the idea of “family” was strengthened. An even greater feast than the first was prepared after the Pilgrims’ excessive production got them through a catastrophic summer drought.
That is the feast we should celebrate each year.
When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner Thursday, ask yourself: do I usually help to make the dinner, or do I usually just help to eat it? If your answer is the latter, surprise your mom and set the table, put out the silverware, husk the corn, or do whatever else you can to make it easier for the ones you love.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Reach Brian at brian.p.anderson@asu.edu
