Thanksgiving Socialism

        People are turning to socialism. Two-thirds of Americans ages 18-29 hold a “favorable view” of it.

        New York just elected a “proud socialist” mayor. My video explains why his ideas would make things worse.

        Of course they would! Socialism has never worked. Anywhere!

        Yet Seattle too just elected a socialist mayor.

        “Let’s give socialism a chance,” said a student writing in The Student Life, a college newspaper.

        Americans should know we already gave socialism a chance. The only reason we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with lots of food is because the Pilgrims learned (the hard way) that socialism doesn’t work.

        When they came to America, they first tried sharing land. Gov. William Bradford decreed that each family would get an equal share of food, no matter how much they worked.

        The results were disastrous.

        Few Pilgrims worked hard, claiming “weakness and inability,” wrote Bradford. “Much was stolen.”

        The same plan in Jamestown led to starvation, the death of half the population, even cannibalism.

        Learning from their mistakes, the Pilgrims tried a different approach: “Every family was assigned a parcel of land,” wrote Bradford. Then, he noted, Pilgrims “went willingly into the field.”

        That’s capitalism.

        Soon, there was an abundance of food. So much that the Pilgrims and Natives could celebrate Thanksgiving together.

        This abundance has only grown.

        We’ll feast on vast amounts of food this Thanksgiving that, despite media clickbait, is much more affordable than it used to be. Today Americans spend only 10% of our disposable income on food. When I started working, it was twice that.

        This abundance didn’t come with people in government manipulating supply chains, or comrades dictating prices and quality.

        It comes from millions of people practicing capitalism, making billions of voluntary exchanges.

        It comes from free people willing to innovate and take risks, in an attempt to make more money by serving customers better than the next guy.

        This process almost always works better than government central planning.

        Without central direction, farmers, truckers and grocers move food across the country with remarkable coordination and efficiency.

        Stores compete so fiercely that they sell turkeys at a loss, just to get you through their doors.

        Global competition drives airlines to lower their fares so it’s cheaper for you to fly home for Thanksgiving.

        And despite the media’s alarms about climate change creating food shortages, global agricultural output sets record (SET ITAL)highs(END ITAL) year after year.

        Government didn’t orchestrate any of that. Government can barely manage a DMV line.

        Markets create abundance because they quickly reward people who figure out how to make things cheaper, faster and better.

        That’s what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.

        The alternative looks a lot like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea …

        While we enjoy the gifts that free enterprise brings, AP reports that in Venezuela, “every meal is a struggle.”

        NBC, before going on to write silly stories that practically promote socialism, admits that in Cuba, residents face “daily blackouts lasting up to 20 hours, mounting piles of uncollected garbage, and severe shortages of food and basic goods.”

        When politicians try to control the economy, the abundance you get … is scarcity.

        We live in a country where choices overwhelm us, and shortages are something we read about in the news.

        It should make us grateful. Not just for the food, but for the free enterprise system that creates it.

        This Thanksgiving, as you go around the table to say what you’re thankful for, take a moment to thank the farmers, truckers, pilots, grocery workers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and most importantly, the economic freedom that makes it all possible.

        Let’s not let socialist idiots kill it!

        Abundance doesn’t happen by accident. It won’t continue if we forget where it came from.

        Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Government Gone Wild: Exposing the Truth Behind the Headlines.” The front-page image is “The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth” by Jennie A. Brownscombe, 1914. On display at the Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal in The Netherlands. Via Wikimedia Commons. 

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