The Tragedy of the Commons

Real Clear Politics ^ | November 21, 2007 | John Stossel

[secretagent]

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. "Isn't sharing wonderful?" say the teachers.

They miss the point.

Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn't happen.

The failure of Soviet communism is only the latest demonstration that freedom and property rights, not sharing, are essential to prosperity. The earliest European settlers in America had a dramatic demonstration of that lesson, but few people today know it.

When the Pilgrims first settled the Plymouth Colony, they organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share everything equally, work and produce.

They nearly all starved.

..snip

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Some animals are more equal...

[ConorMacNessa]

"They nearly all starved."

Then, luckily, someone found a copy of Milton Friedman's "Freedom and Capitalism."

[goldstategop]

Communism doesn't work - not even as an ideal of human selflessness. It just defies human nature and wherever it has been tried, the results have been disastrous. No one can make it work even with the best efforts in the world. Given its real world record, one should expect intelligent people to completely reject it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Bob]

Given its real world record, one should expect intelligent people to completely reject it.

IMHO, intelligent people do completely reject it

[secretagent]

Communism has some limited life perhaps, in monasteries, lifeboats, and marriages.

[secretagent]

Then, luckily, someone found a copy of Milton Friedman's "Freedom and Capitalism."

Thanks, I mistakenly thought it was Ludwig von Mises' "Human Action".

I learn something new every day here!

[Secret Agent Man]

You can’t expect people to feel invested and concerned when they don’t own it and will not proportionately profit by their hard work.

If you get the same whether you do hardly anything or break your back, why bust your ass? This is what socialism and communism have taught us. The truth about human nature.

[secretagent]

Some animals are more equal...

Or well, that's the way of things.

[NewRomeTacitus]

What private property does -- as the Pilgrims discovered -- is connect effort to reward, creating an incentive for people to produce far more. Then, if there's a free market, The article ended with these wise observations:

"People will trade their surpluses to others for the things they lack. Mutual exchange for mutual benefit makes the community richer.

Secure property rights are the key. When producers know that their future products are safe from confiscation, they will take risks and invest. But when they fear they will be deprived of the fruits of their labor, they will do as little as possible.

That's the lost lesson of Thanksgiving."

Amen.

[secretagent]

When producers know that their future products are safe from confiscation, they will take risks and invest. But when they fear they will be deprived of the fruits of their labor, they will do as little as possible.

Losing the fruit of ones labor to confiscation: sounds like theft or enslavement.

[rawcatslyentist]

One country is capitalist, the other communist. Hey even the people working night shift on the offshore squid boats have it better than the NK's!!!

[HoosierHawk]

George Orwell:

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

[goldstategop]

And the Israeli kibbutzim. It points out there are exceptions to the rule. But it does not negate the rule itself and even that veritable experiment in socialism, the kibbutz, has had to adopt capitalism in order to survive.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[goldstategop]

The last redoubt of Marxism happens to be in the United States. It has been discredited by experience elsewhere but only here does it still retain true believers.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[HoosierHawk]

Crazy enough, right?

But the smartest woman in the history of the world is running for POTUS.

That's SCARY!!

[DeweyCA]

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a HIGHLY EDUCATED person could believe in them. I have 2 Masters degrees, but I know that, for many people, the longer they stay in the leftist indoctrination programs of higher education, the less common-sense they have.