Here's some "food" for thought ....

The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

By Richard J. Maybury Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving's real meaning.

The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

In his 'History of Plymouth Plantation,' the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years, because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with "corruption," and with "confusion and discontent." The crops were small because "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."

In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, "all had their hungry bellies filled," but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first "Thanksgiving" was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men.

But in subsequent years something changes. The harvest of 1623 was different. Suddenly, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty," Bradford wrote, "and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God." Thereafter, he wrote, "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the colonists were able to begin exporting corn.

What happened?

After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, "they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop." They began to question their form of economic organization.

This had required that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means" were to be placed in the common stock of the colony, and that, "all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock." A person was to put into the common stock all he could, and take out only what he needed.

This "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were starving. 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.

Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the same terrible results. At Jamestown, established in 1607, out of every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be parasites. In the winter of 1609-10, called "The Starving Time," the population fell from five-hundred to sixty.

Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth. In 1614, Colony Secretary Ralph Hamor wrote that after the switch there was "plenty of food, which every man by his own industry may easily and doth procure." He said that when the socialist system had prevailed, "we reaped not so much corn from the labors of thirty men as three men have done for themselves now."

Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing for which to be thankful. They were in the same situation as Ethiopians are today, and for the same reasons. But after free markets were established, the resulting abundance was so dramatic that the annual Thanksgiving celebrations became common throughout the colonies, and in 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.

Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets, and we thank God we live in a country where we can have them.

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Interesting....but I do think that "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" does have some merit....widows ,orphans and elderly folk with no relatives do need care from strong young men like myself. Which I do.

The free market economy does have downfalls also....just look at Wal-Mart.....low prices but low quality and mostly imported products also. Don't buy that "Made in America" bull....start checking labels and tags. They don't pay a living wage either.

Comments please!

-- Jason in S. Tenn. (AJAMA5@netscape.net), November 22, 2001

Answers

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

Capitalism = unequal distribution of wealth Socialism = equal distribution of misery

-- gita (gschmitz@directcon.net), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

I wish people would stop bashing discount stores like Wal-Mart. I'm sure everyone on this board has at one time or another bought a higher- priced, top-of-the-line, American-made widget and had it fall apart due to poor quality. Quality has less to do with where something is made and more to do with how it is made.

If people don't like what they make at McDonald's or Wal-Mart (which at least has a stock program--the early employees who took advantage of this are quite happy about it), improve your skills and get another job--in other words, write your own ticket, don't expect the government to do it for you. Every time minimum wage goes up, you can count on businesses looking to do away with jobs, because they can't absorb the increase.

Also, if we were to do away with imports, we would not have a lot of the things we take for granted, like cars and electronic equipment. I do not think you can find an American made TV, for instance, and most cars have so many imported components that they don't really qualify either. And, oddly enough, people don't complain about imports from places like Europe, just Asia and the third world. Is it because of the protectionism here, which makes European goods too expensive for most folks?

In addition, don't forget the many Americans who are employed in this country by foreign companies, and Americans who are employed by American companies in their overseas offices. Works both ways.

Just a thought.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

I recently saw a documentary about Jamestown on TV. Apparently there was a major power struggle between the aristocracy and the commoners. They dug up a grave of one young man who had been killed by a musket ball, and at that early date the indians did not yet have guns so it was likely murder. John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) was a leader among the commoners, and he also was able to establish trade with the Indians. He was, however, mysteriously injured when his back pack blew up. He was sent back to England for treatment and was not allowed to return. It was dry that year, and the harvest wasn't very good, and the Indians decided to get rid of the colony by shooting anyone who came out to hunt or fish. They knew the colonists wouldn't have enough food just from the harvest alone, so they decided to starve them out. Eventually, the settlers of Jamestown got their goods together and started walking. Shortly afterwards they ran into the supply ships headed towards Jamestown AND their new governor, and with new supplies AND new management the colony became succesfull. I think that the history of Jamestown more closely reflects human cussedness and a particularly cut throat variety of politics, than it does the merits of Socialism vs. Free Market systems; telling able- bodied people to work or starve was no doubt beneficial to everyone, since there was NO problem finding a job, but it was no where near the entire story!

We've all known people who would do almost anything for power, whether it is sleeping to the top, lying, eliminating the opposition, or whatever brand of cutthroat office politics they may indulge in. Jamestown was simply the same thing but worse because it was almost impossible quit and walk away: people had to live with (or die with) the consequences.

-- terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

Generally speaking, no one complains about imports from European countries because they treat their employees decently and pay them a living wage. Thats one of the reasons they cost more. The safest cars in the world come from Germany and Sweden. They are very high quality...that's why they cost so much.

It's sad though, that a person has to pay a fortune for a safe car. More money does sometimes buy the best quality item....but you have to look for it. Sometimes the most expensive item is NOT the best quality...just the best fluff. (Nike for instance).

We all have read stories about Asian sweat shops and child labor...that is just one of the reasons they get bashed.

I read an interview of upper management from a Nissan factory here in the states....He said " American workers want too much money, too many days off, and are extremely lazy."

The truth hurts doesn't it?

I have worked in factories and I have to agree with him......Americas' work ethic is not what it was in the 50's and 60'.....could be why we have such a terrible trade imbalance now.

-- Jason in S. Tenn. (AJAMA5@netscape.net), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

The crushing tax burden that the Europeans have to shoulder is why things cost so much. Businesses must pay high taxes, which the consumer eventually pays, and individuals' income is highly taxed, which the consumer also pays.

A living wage simply means that companies must pay a salary that an employee can "live" on at today's prices. So the companies are out that much more money and they pass that cost along to the buyer of the product. The employee has more income to spend so he buys more things, kicking in the inescapable truth of economics that the higher the demand for products, the higher the price goes. So the employee is being paid more but the price of things has gone up as well, and his "living" wage cannot be lived on anymore. So it's time for a hike in the "living" wage, and the cycle goes on. The unseen consequences of schemes like this are just as bad...the higher wage means the business will hire fewer people, and have less capital to invest in improvement of the product and less for expansion which would create more jobs.

Henry Hazlitt wrote many books explaining how government meddling in economics, for whatever reason, has had failure after failure, which leads the public to demand the government to "do something", leading to more of the same.

-- gita (gschmitz@directcon.net), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

The flip side to all this is that up to, and even over, half of all homeless people in America (depending on what area, city, so on, you take your numbers from) are working FULL TIME. 8 or more hours a day, at or just above minimum wage (in the Silicon Valley area, due to the cost of living there, many people that live in the homeless shelters full time make upwards of 50K(!)) and still can't make rent. They can't really move either, as their skills are pretty much only locally valuable). Here in the Triangle area of NC, (central/Raleigh area) the BASIC cost of living means you need a job that pulls in $14/hr - just to pay rent, feed, and clothe your family of 3 or 4. Not including gas, taxes, deposit and first month's rent, telephone and elec. deposits, car insurance (mandatory), etc. Minimum wage is just at or below half of that. Granted, this is a wealthy area, but not, by a long shot the wealthiest. As a matter of fact, its probably in the mid to upper middle for average cost of living nationwide. I live in the country, WAYYYYY off the beaten path (hour to get anywhere with work) and it still costs me within spitting distance of $1000 for bills, utilities, gas, etc., depending on the time of year. No way I could get by on minimum wage. No one can, and still be close enough to town to get that min wage job. If I grew all my own food, made all my clothes, or bought them all thrift store (which I pretty much do, anyway) and likewise were set up to produce all of my own energy needs, it wouldn't be a problem. But if I didn't have a good paying job (like I do) I'd never be able to get far enough ahead to save up money for doing all of that. As it is, a serious car breakdown has put me out of work for over a week, and only the fact that I have lowered my bills to bare minimum for my circumstances, have a credit card with room left at the top, and had enough in the checking account to write checks for bills saved my butt from being evictable the month before Christmas. If I'd been a single mother in town, job or no job, I'd be sleeping in a shelter right now.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

When I see too extreme or wildly different viewpoints, I take it to mean that the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle ground. I would imagine it's true for this fable too. American "history" is riddled with such fables, fabricated to press a well-intentioned moral.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

In CA, the governor just made a plea for those who lost jobs in Silicon Valley to consider teaching (it was on the news a few days ago). Teacher salaries are, granted, not as attractive compared to what they were making, but as teachers they are really only working 9-10 months out of the year, have great benefits and lots of places have teacher shortages--not just in CA either, all over the country there are teacher shortages. Those people have valuable skills that can easily translate into some kind of teaching job, if not K-12, then at the junior colleges.

A lot of people have moved out, and to be honest, the ones that are having the most problems there were just one paycheck away from disaster in the first place, in other words, they weren't really making it on their former salaries, they only thought they were. Most of us can take an honest look at what's going on in our lives and switch gears (move, go into a different field--for example RNs are another 'way short field, and some places are even partially paying your way through school, just like teachers in some areas) but if someone's making $50K and living in a shelter, that's sad, because you're taking up space that some really poor person with no money and no prospects could use. Also, since you don't have some expenses that you did before, you could be saving the money to move somewhere else and start over, like many people have. No one can think their job is forever, and that's why you have to save for a rainy day.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), November 22, 2001.

Response to The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

Thank goodness for the "homesteading" way of life. Just the things you need to get you by and not much excess.

"Enough is never enough" seems to be the cry of the masses today.

-- Jason in S. Tenn. (AJAMA5@netscape.net), November 23, 2001.

The Theory of Economics?? It befundles me how they can hand out Nobel prizes for such a pseudo science. It's like awarding Nobel prizes for witchcraft or voodoo.

-- Keith (halfc@fidnet.com), November 23, 2001.

This is one of the reasons we choose NOT to celebrate holidays -- most are based on outright mistruths/lies; their true meaning horribly and irrevocably obscured, usually in the name of capitalism, materialism, etc. Doesn't matter which holiday one is speaking of: Thanksgiving, Christmas, anniversarys, Valentine's Day, etc. We have however, decided that OUR Thanksgiving day will be the day we move onto our newly purchased homestead, which seems like a better day than one based on the mistruths which have been told to the majority of sheeple.

-- Lisa (mountainlady@imbris.com), November 23, 2001.

I'd much rather believe something that I read on an internet forum, posted by someone that I don't know.

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), November 23, 2001.

Thanksgiving should be everyday just for the fact that we are alive and able to get through another day. Thanksgiving doesn't have to be a hugh meal with all the trimmings, it can be just enough to cure the hunger pains and allow us to get through the rest of the day and night. It doesn't have to be fancy and expensive but just enough. I only wish that people would stop thinking that each holiday has to be bigger and better why not just enough in according to our needs. Folks have allowed this to happen and if somewhere along the way we don't start to get a handle on the whole situation who knows where it will end. I know that some of our family memebers think I'm odd because we don't "buy" but make most if not all our Christmas gifts ok so I'm odd but I do know that my children know the real meaning of Christmas and not what others think they know. Christmas should live in your heart all year long not just on Dec. 25 or Jan. 6 which is when we celebrate and give our thanks . It has always sadden me that when you ask most people what is their thoughts on Christmas very often your hear fur coat, diamond ring, new bike, etc, etc. I don't think it was the origional intention of the day.

Sally

-- (mallardhen67@hotmail.com), November 26, 2001.