Free Republic

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors…" ...Edward Winslow, original pilgrim, 1621 on the first Thanksgiving I am struck by how much Americans have to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Despite our economic and political difficulties, more than two hundred years of freedom of opportunity have delivered a standard of living by all estimates among the best of the most robust economies anywhere. Educational opportunities are world-class. People come here for the most advanced, effective and...

It’s wrong to say that American was founded by capitalists. In fact, America was founded by socialists who had the humility to learn from their initial mistakes and embrace freedom. One of the earliest and arguably most historically significant North American colonies was Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620 in what is now known as Plymouth, Massachusetts. As I’ve outlined in greater detail here before (Lessons From a Capitalist Thanksgiving), the original colony had written into its charter a system of communal property and labor. As William Bradford recorded in his -- Of Plymouth Plantation, a people who had formerly been...