The American Socialist Experiment

So many of our liberal (and even a few so-called "moderate conservative") politicians have been clamoring for years for socialized medicine, increased social welfare, and other such programs. This in spite of the fact that these types of programs have failed utterly in so many other places -- for example, the socialized medicine programs of Canada and England have led to a drastic decrease in the quality of services for all but the wealthiest, who bypass the governmental programs and spend exorbitant amounts on private care.

Unfortunately, it seems that many in the American public are slowly being worn down and are beginning to accept the lies inherent in all socialistic programs.

And since we are in the midst of celebrating Thanksgiving (and the capitalistic holiday known as "after-Thanksgiving sales"), this seems the perfect time to recall the very first American experiment in socialism -- which failed as miserably as its successor in the Soviet Union.

[Plymouth Colony Governor William] Bradford writes that "young men that are most able and fit for labor and service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children." Also, "the strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes, than he that was weak." So the young and strong refused to work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.

To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of famines.

An intriguing chronicle from our nation's history that too few Americans have ever heard. Score another round for revisionist history.