Reason.tv (and The Pilgrims): Give Thanks…For Property Rights!

The Pilgrims founded their colony at Plymouth Plantation in December 1620 and promptly started dying off in droves.

As the colony's early governor, William Bradford, wrote in "Of Plymouth Plantation":

That which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed.

When the settlers finally stopped croaking, they set about creating a heaven on earth, a society without private property, where all worked for the common good. Everything was shared. Especially bitching and moaning about working for the common good. Bradford again:

Yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine that they should spend their time and streingth to worke for other mens wives and children, with out any recompense….And for men's wives to be commanded to doe service for other men, as dresing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brooke it.

With nobody working, everybody was suffering. And in case you think nobody was working simply because they couldn't understand a damn thing Bradford was saying, chew on this: In 1623, Bradford and the other leaders

…assigned to every family a parceel of land…this had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more torne was planted then other waise would have bene by any means the Govr or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente. 

 In no time at all

any generall wante of famine hath not been amongest them since to this day.

America would never go hungry again. So this week, before you drift into your annual tryptophan-induced coma, don't forget to give thanks to the true patron of this holiday feast: property rights.

For more on this, go here. For a contrary take on whether the Pilgrims were proto-socialists, go here.

Approximately 2.30 minutes.

Produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie. Voices by Meredith Bragg and Austin Bragg.

Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions. Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

Comments

[Liberal Douchebag]

"Property rights" = "Oh, for the days when a rich white man could own a few niggers".

[People are not property....]

Liberals and progressives need to start remembering that. We don't expect commies, fascists, totalitarians and other dictator types to remember.

[Federal Man]

We at the government took away most all of your property already. The USSR failed because they stole peoples property overtly. We at the US government have succeeded, and you people are too stupid to realize it!!!

i.e. you fools don't even realize that if you are paying money under threat of eviction, you don't own your homes. ESPECIALLY when you not only pay us money, but we control your use of our property through permit requirements and zoning laws.
http://youareproperty.blogspot.....house.html

You stupid people still think you are free.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Domestic slaves were almost uniformly dealt with indulgently and even affectionately by their masters..."Field hands" on the ordinary plantation came constantly under their master's eye, were comfortably quartered, and were kept from overwork both by their own laziness and by slack discipline to which they were subject."

-Woodrow Wilson, the Progressive President; enslaving Negroes for their own good.

[Jefferson Davis]

Slavery is always wrong. That is where the problem started. Remember always pick your own cotton....lettuce too!

[theunknown]

In the most odd way those who don't support property rights were actually supporting slavery. A person is their own property which gives them sovreign control of their own person and labor. The 'evil white landowners' were actually guilty of violating the property rights of the slaves.

[Tman]

Is that Timmy Geithner in the Rockwell shot at the bottom? Brutal.

[Suki]

Happy Thanksgiving reason!

[Rather]

You too 🙂
I'm grateful post

[Episiarch]

I'll give you this: your blogwhoring is epic on a Sorgatz scale. Doesn't that make you proud?

[Rather]

I think of blogwhoring more like a heroin fix-Epi like. Except addicts need more, and more and I'm satisfied with the hundreds of hits I get everyday.

[Bingo]

Your blog is weird as hell dude.

[Rather]

Bingo, I try not to be politically incorrect but you are clinically retarded dude

[detector invizibil yahoo]

It is your colourful blog that brings me a lot of konwledge about living. Thank you so much.

[dbcooper]

FUCK OFF spam trash.

[Rather]

DB, fuck you too, and while I'm at it, stop sending me the pictures of your dick-5 inches is nothing to brag about; I don't care what your mother told you

[SIV]

How blog whoring is done.
NSFW Bettie Page bitchez...

[SIV]

I don't count "hits" but you are welcome to follow me on the tumblr.

Pics of CHICKS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR Other Stuff Too!*

*but not much else

[africkinamerican]

How about HOW TO MAKE MONEY SEXING CHICKS

[Rather]

LOL. I see you have graduated graduated magna cum loudly from the rctl school of marketing.

[filme gratis]

great video, very interesting...

[Fist of Etiquette]

And to think, all this time I've been bragging that my family came over on the Mayflower.

Back in ye olden times the sheer majesty of the United States of America could bleed the common ownership nonsense out of even the most Socialist European asshole like a busted hemorrhoid. Nowadays we seem to breed our own Commies right here under a waving Old Glory.

Happy Turkey Day, everybody!

[Suki]

Why can't you still brag? The ones who survived the communism created the free market. Only if your family was in the surviving half, of course.

[James]

Um, he or she is alive so obviously their family survived the communism! lol

[Turkey Nazi]

No, no, no! Look at that grammar! They were dying off from stupidity! And... communism.

[generic Brand]

Seriously, I can't believe this didn't get more focus. Tell me again why we have to take 12 years of this shit in public school? The English language was an abomination... thank God we Americanized it.

[James]

You realize that the video is not correct in the way its reading the older English. Just because its spelled differently doesn't mean it was pronounced that way. Reason must have some computer program that just reads script phonetically.

[Attorney]

Why is Ernie Kovacs in the painting? Was he a Commie?

[Alice Bowie]

Com'n REASON, you couldn't enjoy property rights today without killing all of the indians and enslaving the niggers yesterday. But that's just me being a hopeless liberal.

[Adamson]

Wow - and I thought yesterday was a slow news day. I guess I missed me a chance to get some slaves and kill some injuns.

[Barbarian #3]

Exactly! Couldn't agree more. All the other countries of the world, excepting the US, arrived at their current borders by treating their neighbors fairly, paying full retail price for every inch of ground they purchased, and never, ever resorting to any sort of violence.
Let us sit, sadly, on the carpet, and bemoan what utter bastards we are, and pledge to give to each according to their needs tomorrow. I'd imagine we could get 3 or 4 more families into your place, Alice.

[Alice's Dad]

Son, I am disappoint

[Mr. FIFY]

1. That was how long ago, again, Alice?

2. Never gonna happen here again.

3. Get over it.

[Jefferson Davis]

"Never gonna happen here again."
But we'll never stop paying for it!

[El Duderino]

I'm half Polish and half Italian. Exactly how am I responsible for this shit? My parents came here from Poland to flee Nazis (National Socialists... aka Socialists) and they came from Italy fleeing ummmmmmmm Socialists douche bags in Italy so they could have the dignity of working in a fucking coal mine. My relatives didnt enslave anyone and they didnt kick anyone off their land.

I'm sorry the Indians didn't win that particular battle and the Africans didnt fight off their AFRICAN slave masters before they sold them to American honkeys, but I am not paying that bill since I didnt make those fucking phone calls.

[Trueofvoice]

Your post is untrue, Mr. Gillespie. The entire venture was for profit. Every member of the expedition was a member and employee of the Virginia Company. To cast the Plymouth settlement as some kind of socialist endeavor is just bizarre.

1). Bradford makes it very clear that collectivizing resources was intended as a temporary measure, not as a way of creating "heaven on Earth".

2). Most deaths were not due to starvation, but were due to accidents, disease, and a general lack of planning. This is also clear from a thorough reading of his journal.

3). There was little starvation. They wouldn't have had a feast were it otherwise, they would have conserved.

4). I see you have completely failed to mention Bradford's account of the help received from Squanto's people. You know, the ones who had no concept of private property.

I'm sympathetic to libertarianism on more than a few issues, but your attempt to politicize Thanksgiving Day makes you an asshole.

[Yonemoto]

Factcheck!

http://www.thefreemanonline.or.....americans/

[trueofvoice]

And yet you still got it wrong.

[-]

I know that the intent behind Georgia's corporate charter was to promote a socialist/religious utopia. Georgia was a colony comprised of debtors (who had been in prison) and other cast-offs. I think that just like below, you're mistaking a whole lot of history because you see the words "corporate" in there. Not only that, the stated purposes of the charter were often different from how the colonies acted. Kind of like when a benefactor or authority gives you money and freedom, and you have to justify it to their own self-interest.

[Yonemoto]

Also, reason cut off the beginnning of the quote which is directly preceded by:

"The experience that was had in this comone course and condition, tried sundrie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanitie of that conceite of Platos & other ancients, applauded by some of later times; that ye taking away of propertie, and bringing in comunitie into a comone wealth, would make them happy and florishing; as if they were wiser then God."

So, yeah they were really engaging in a social experiment, even though, yes, it was a for-profite venture organized by the londonne companie.

[Ben Wolf]

But that isn't the point. Is every aspect of our culture reducible to scoring against a political opponent? If so we have no culture.

I suppose our political pundits (like Gillespie) wouldn't have their day jobs if we weren't constantly at each other's throats, though.

[Yonemoto]

Shorter: Hey look at me I'm being contrarian.

No, every aspect of our culture is not reducible to scoring against a political opponent, but that is the point of a political blog/online mag.

although FWIW, I think wagner's music is utter crap, in addition to him being a total nazi.

[Gilbert Martin]

"Your post is untrue, Mr. Gillespie. The entire venture was for profit. Every member of the expedition was a member and employee of the Virginia Company. "

You are getting the Pilgrims at Plymouth mixed up with the Jamestown colony in Virginia.

Jamestown was indeed financed by a corporate venture looking to make a profit.

Jamestown was the first English colony.

They got here before the Pilgrims did.

[Trueofvoice]

My mistake, I meant to type the London Company.

[buddyglass]

Another contrary take:

http://budiansky.blogspot.com/.....rries.html

[rhea]

Given the huge damage the economy suffered it is not surprising that it is taking so long to recover. People have already forgotten the years where the economy was running on empty... and then the banks almost collapsed. GM almost collapsed. GE financial almost collapsed. So... even now with the housing market still in peril for 5-8 years there will be a long recovery. http://www.pathtoasia.com/jobs/

[J-Lib]

Alas this ye Reinterpretation of Historye is a bitt simplistick.

* As one mentioned above, there doesn't seem to be any evidence they were trying to create a "heaven on earth"; rather they were adhering to corporate policy. And, one might add, it's not hard to imagine that the colonists would have had to rely on company provisions after a long voyage and before a harvest.

* The "private property rights" here are different from the construct many libertarians espouse today.

* If the Pilgrims came back today, I'd hope they would know better than to consume our mass-marketed "foods" (like double cheeseburgers), after studying the ingredients and production methods. They might eat the turkey and drink the beer provided both were organic and Genetic Monstrosity-free.

[-]

Corporate charters meant something much different back then.

[Yonemoto]

Uhm, how much US history do you remember?

http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/charity.html

[El Duderino]

Being a matter of corporate charter doesn't make it any less of a bad idea. Bad ideas do not strictly reside in government, though government seems to have a penchant for said bad ideas due to its authoritarian proclivities. I know it must feel good to once again blame a corporation for something but you are really not making a very good point here. If you are in favor of communal property, then you are saying that corporations are quite capable of providing that which you so admire. If you are not in favor of communal property, you are pointing out that it is a failed concept in your efforts to somehow point out its corporate (read as negative) roots.

If you are trying to suggest that because they "could not profit" from their land, that this somehow refutes the core point that private ownership promotes more efficient use of land, then you have completely misunderstood the point. What we have today in terms of "land rights" is not at all the same as what the pilgrims had. What we have in America can hardly be called "property rights," instead, it is closer to renting property from the federal and state government and using it strictly according to their whims. Furthermore, and back to the real point. Collective use does not make for an efficient use of land. If all people share in the crop yield, then there is little motivation to work harder on the land if they have no motivation to do so. If everyone else is working hard, why should I if i am going to still reap the benefits of the crops planted. Communal property breeds this sort of thinking by effectively neutering any impetus to work. If I will not starve to death for not working, why should I work. The profit motive is an added motivator. Not only is not starving to death a helpful motivator, but the possibility of making money with any surplus crops inspires innovation as farmers look for ways to increase yields so as to end up with a surplus (profit).

Regarding "mass marketed foods" please try to explain how these foods are any less valuable than their "organic" counterpart. An organic double cheesburger is no more healthy than an inorganic burger. A GMO veggie is no more or less healthy than a "normal" veggie. Oh wait, there is one difference between organic / non-GMO foods and their "mass market" counterparts. . . they are cheaper and more accessible to the POOR.

[Syd Henderson]

The Jamestown colonists died off in droves worse than the Pilgrims. Pretty much all the early colonization efforts in Australia had problems. The Botany Bay colony had to move to Sydney Cove where the soil is more fertile. (Although Botany Bay is part of Sydney.) Roanoke disappeared entirely. The 1607 Popham colony in Maine lasted only a year. And the Viking settlements famously failed. Colonization is a rough business, regardless of whether you advocate communal property or private property.

[Joe the Plumber]

The LaReunion colony in Dallas was financed as a for profit socialist venture. That's how the colonists raised the money to buy the land, provisions, and passage. Like the rest, it failed and failed to pay its investors. I guess it too suffered from the original sin of profit. Either that or everyone wants to be the artist and noone wants to be the farmhand.

[Brian from Texas]

I just remembered seeing this picture on the Internet a few years back. I can't remember the website. It had a photo of Native Americans armed with rifles and a caption underneath it that read: "FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SINCE 1492"

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[James]

http://www.libertarianminds.co.....anksgiving

[vikram Siva]

This article shows the positive aspect of the property rights in North America, I will attempt to show the negative aspect of property rights in North America.

"...in 1887 the Dawes acts comes into existence forced upon by the Americans to the Natives. It ends the communal ownership of reservation land ends. Reservations are cut out into 160 acres sections and distributed to individual Indians and the surplus disposed of ( disposed of meaning Indians didnt own the extra land). Tribes lost millions of acres.

The AMERICAN DREAM of LAND OWNERSHIP turned out to be a very clever way to divide the reservation until nothing was left. The move destroyed the reservations, making it easier to further subdivide and to sell with every passing generation. Most of the surplus land and many of the plots within the reservation boundaries are now in the hands of white ranchers. Once again the fat of the land goes to washitu ( washitu means non indian or the one that takes the fat and the nice part of the meat for himself leaving the bone for everybody else.)"

This quote is from Aaron Huey, a white man who spent time with the Lakota people in Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv7n5jhrHGQ
Please watch the whole video to fully understand the situation of Pine Ridge Reservation.

[J-Lib]

Thank you, I am watching now.

By the way, just so you know how to create a live link, like this: Pine Ridge Reservation video

The HTML coding is simple:

------------------------
< a href ="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv7n5jhrHGQ" > Pine Ridge Reservation video < /a >
------------------------

EXCEPT you must close the spaces after < and before > so the code will execute properly.

[Juice]

Don't you know that this is all just right wing revisionist history?

http://videocafe.crooksandliar.....list-pilgr

[theunknown]

If it is the truth then what can you say to alter that? Why would you revise history to be anything other than the truth?

[nicksHairyBUTTHOLE]

"America would never go hungry again."

LOL.

Nick GIllespe you are a fucking cock sucker faggot. Fuck you and you extremely hairy and smelly butt hole. You Fonzi wannabe mother fucker.

[Sy]

Remember,Nick. This is what happens when you advertise.

[El Duderino]

Wow, another thought provoking rebuttal.

[El Duderino]

Wow

Another thought provoking rebuttal!

[air freshener]

Thanks for the great article here at your blog. I know it will help me and many others.

[El Duderino]

Another thought provoking rebuttal!

[Lamar]

I don't know how you can look at copyright, the RIAA, the MPAA and say, "yeah, positive impact". Our hopes and dreams are rolled up in the possibility our teenage daughter might get a shot of her beaver on E! Good job, overextension of property rights.

[shiroi neko]

Highly agree.

[Sonny Boy Press]

I believe in Free Market Ochlocracy, it's the only belief that coincides with humankind's psychology.