Thanksgiving Dinner In The O'conomy
Posted on 11/25/2015 5:18:27 AM PST by Mechanicos
In the middle of December 1620 the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, leaving behind the sinfulness of the “old world†to make a “new Jerusalem†in America. Three years later, in November 1623, they had a great feast thanking God for getting them through an earlier famine, and now for a bountiful crop.
What had created the earlier famine and then the bountiful crops? The story is told in the diary of Governor Bradford, who was one of the elders of that early Puritan colony.
At first, they decided to turn their back on all the institutions of the England that had been their home. This included the institution of private property, which they declared to be the basis of greed, averse, and selfishness. Instead, they were determined to live the “Platonic ideal†of collectivism, in which all work would be done in common, with the rewards of their collective efforts evenly divided among the colonists. Farming was done in common, as well as housekeeping and child raising. This was supposed to lead to prosperity and brotherly love.
But their experiment in collectivism did not lead to prosperity or brotherly love. Rather, it created poverty and envy and slothfulness among most of the members of this little society. ... http://www.lakecountrynow.com/opinion/blogs/communityblogs/134348908.html
(Excerpt) Read more at lakecountrynow.com ...
A lot of history got erased. The Thirty Years War started a year prior to them sailing out of Europe. Almost no one among those dropped off had real survivor skills. They waited because of ship problems....until they landed too late to make any real crops or food supply for the winter period.
one of the best stories never told...
Yeah they were already starving when they arrived and they expected a flourishing trade with the indians and it didn’t happen. As it is they were under contract to someone else and the contract came first.
I was pleased to see that “Saints and strangers” went into this aspect of it. I think it was John Standish who uttered the line “A man who works for himself works harder”.
I think if you were going to write a book on the one hundred things (or potential mistakes) you ought to figure out, plan and be prepared for as you travel to another planet....I’d start with the Mayflower crew and plan. Only through just sheer luck and determination....were there a couple of folks still living in the spring.
Oddly, the statistical average....if you to the Thirty Years War, the plague period, and consider all those in central Europe....it’s a fifty-percent death rate. So either way....they were going to need luck.
Brought forward to modern times, the old rules seem to apply, even ignoring the “socialism” tag, though appropriate.
As a great example showing how the real world works, the US military had a superb pistol, the .45 ACP. However, its stocks of these pistols were worn out. Having tried to go the NATO route with 9mm pistols, that were found wanting, the pistols *had* to be of some variety of .45 ACP.
So from on high, the Pentagon issued an offer to *every* gun maker in the US. Make a high quality .45 ACP, and in competition we will choose the best of the lot. Soon, every gun maker in the US was making at least one model of .45 ACP. Very high quality and low price were key, and the competition was fierce. Eventually making its choice among hundreds of pistols, the Pentagon got the best of the best.
It did not hurt the rest, either, because the market was then flooded with a huge assortment of .45 ACPs, so many of them still made a lot of money. And gun buyers benefited most of all.
Okay, this is one way of doing things. Now look at the bad way, the way of failure.
Once in office, Obama wanted to “go solar”, or rather, to drag the nation away from proven fuels to embrace technology that didn’t exist. Fixing what was not broken.
His method to do this was to offer huge sums of money to a relatively small number of cronies and con artists. That is, he would go to just *one* company, give them a ton of money, and tell them to *invent* something new and untried.
Creativity doesn’t work like that. Although many of them created many things, the vast majority was crap. And though there were many people out there in business who *might* have created something good, they were neither invited to participate, nor given any money, nor offered any money if they did produce a breakthrough.
And many of the cronies and con artists, when results were demanded, had no problem in *faking* results.
And it cost many billions of dollars to do things this way, and produced bupkus.
But that is the only way Obama and his cronies believe things can be done. Since they believe that the *purpose* of government is power, and to reward their friends and punish their enemies, in retrospect to the failure, they see it as having been a smashing success.
Boy, am I glad these people got lost and didn’t make it to Virginia...
Avarice
Not averse.
It is surely true that their incredibly valuable alliance with Squanto the Patuxet, and with Massasoit, the Wampanoag's sachem, was key to their survival; but what is omitted is that the whole purpose of the colony, expressed also in their Thanksgiving, was "for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith and honour of our King and Country."
Greed, avarice and selfishness.
Bloggers like serial synonyms.
A crude way to say it, is it appears they were just a band of freeloaders dumped off in the wilderness.
Now take modern day folks just wanting that free stuff, and throw in a handful of snowflakes, throw them into the wilderness of the Rockies. Give them traps, hunting rifles, fishing gear, tents and what ever else it takes to be self sufficient. I bet there would be no difference between this experiment and back then.
My favorite to watch would be the snowflakes looking for a safe space when someone barked out orders to go kill something and cook it.
My point is, if the SHTF in a bad way, such as WWIII or CWII, our very own freeloaders would be the first to parish for the only skills they have is spending others money.
Thanksgiving Dinner In The O'conomy
Beaver skins saved the colony.
With only 100 and some odd people the odds were definitely against them. In that situation the more people you have the better off you are (if you have supplies for everyone to get started) I believe the theory on colonizing another planet is that 40,000 people is the ideal.
In any case, blaming the near collapse on socialism is a wild oversimplification. Their first obligation was to the investors who had funded their trip. Its one of the reasons they sailed on a cargo ship. It was expected to return full of trade goods.
They would have been far better off if they had taken two ships. One designed for passengers and the Mayflower fully loaded with supplies. It would have been a much greater investment and investors would have had to wait much longer for a return but the colony would have been much more successful. Once the investment was paid the pilgrims would have begun clearing their own private land and trading among themselves, the indians, and Europe.
The first pilgrim settlers were forced into holding a common stockhouse by the company who paid for the establishment of the colony. These terms were agreed to by their agents without their knowledge and they only learned of them as they boarded the ship to the new world. They protested immediately, but the terms were set. Once they were ab;e to prove these terms impeded the repayment of the investment, the company agreed to lift the requirement of a common stock-house. However, it still took the pilgrims close to a decade to pay off their debt to this group.
See: http://fee.org/freeman/the-puritan-experiment-in-common-ownership/
Dr. North has also written a book concerning the issue which is available free online, PURITAN ECONOMIC EXPERIMENTS.
Last night PBS aired an episode of American Experience that told the Mayflower story. I had never realized how ill-conceived and ill-prepared the expedition was. Practically anything that could go wrong did: a single ship, too few people, too little food and supplies, on-board sickness, landing 200 miles off course in a barren area, wrong time of year to arrive. But for the help of a few friendly Indians, all would have perished.
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