Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanksgiving: Celebrating the Birth of Free Enterprise in America

Richard Ebeling emails:
Richard Ebeling emails:

Dear Bob,

I have a new article on the news and commentary website, “EpicTimes,” on Thanksgiving: Celebrating the Birth of Free Enterprise in America.”

As we sit around the Thanksgiving table, once again, this year with family and friends, it is worth recalling the true meaning of the Thanksgiving Day celebration, which is the birth of private property and free enterprise.

The ideal of the Pilgrims when they settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts was the creation of a communal society based on Plato’s “Republic,” without the supposed greed and avarice private ownership and profit-making.

But their ideal turned into a nightmare of hardship and starvation when communism-in-practice led to sloth, envy, resentment, and mistrust. After the more than half the colonists died of hunger, the leaders decided to implement, instead, private ownership of land, and the right to keep the crops they harvest and trade their produce with outputs of their neighbors.

Instead, of dearth of the essentials of life, there result bountiful harvests which enabled families to not only survive, but also exchange their surpluses with that of their other colony members.

They decided, in the face of this new plentifulness to celebrate their good fortune, and give thanks to God in the form of a great banquet. But when we seat around our tables, we should remember that what they were really celebrating was the birth of the institutions private enterprises and the spirit of capitalism. 
http://www.epictimes.com/richardebeling/2014/11/thanksgiving-celebrating-the-birth-of-free-enterprise-in-america/

Best,
Richard

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