On Sept. 6, 1620, a group of travelers (English Separatist Puritans) boarded a ship and departed from Plymouth Harbor, England, and embarked on a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic to what was then being called, The New World or New England.
Two months later, after enduring violent storms and other hardships, the ship, Mayflower, put in at what we now know as Cape Cod, Mass. Four days later, on Nov. 15, a small group of men rowed ashore on a small boat. While on shore they saw a group of “savages” who ran away.
The explorers tried to follow the natives but soon foundered in the thickets and gave up. Exploring the next day, they found an abandoned settlement containing evidence of planting, the remains of a shelter and a large kettle with sand heaped around it.
While digging out the kettle they found several baskets of stored food, some of which they took for themselves to carry back to the ship, while reburying the rest. The next day the group found a good place to put ashore and the entire complement of the ship, about 100 people, began Plymouth Colony.
Starting a new colony at the beginning of winter proved a daunting task, and about half of all the settlers died. If not for the food pilfered from the Indians that winter, all might have perished.
The following spring a couple of Indians (one who had learned English from fishermen and another who had been taken into slavery but escaped) befriended the pilgrims and taught them how to plant and fish and gather fruit. Their first harvest that fall was plentiful for the colonists and they and the Indians shared their food during a three-day festival — a celebration that is now considered the first Thanksgiving.
It turns out the celebration was premature. The group structure was designed so that everyone placed the fruits of their labor into a common store. People were then to take what they needed for sustenance. But during the following summers, with some people toiling diligently at farming, fishing and gathering, and others refusing to work, hard feelings developed and food shortages occurred.
Governor William Bradford then assigned each family a plot of ground and allowed the people to use the fruits of their labor to eat or trade as they saw fit. It wasn’t long before so much was being produced that they could use it to trade with others.
The free market had won out over socialism.
Today we live in a country that is modeling itself much more like the early Plymouth Colony than the later one, where half the people are bearing the overwhelming share of the burden.
Currently, the top 1 percent of income earners pay 39.5 percent of the taxes. The top 5 percent pay 60 percent of the taxes.
The top 25 percent of income earners pay almost 76 percent of the taxes. And 97 percent of all taxes are paid by the top 50 percent of income earners.
Did you get that? The top 10 percent of wage earners bear 60 percent of the tax burden, and the top 50 percent of wage earners bear 97 percent of the tax burden.
Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent of income earners take some sort of government subsidy.
More and more the tax system is slanted to create a growing dependent class while society’s producers are burdened with a growing tax liability. It’s a system that is doomed for failure today just as it was in the 1600s.
But today is a day for Thanksgiving, and we have much to be thankful for. Those of us Christians have our loving God, His grace and the blessings He gives us.
We have our health — granted some are better off than others — but if we look around us we can always find someone dealing with a situation that would for us be a terrible burden.
More Americans are working than ever before. And inflation-adjusted wages are finally beginning to rise, albeit slowly.
Finally, we Americans live in the greatest country in the history of the world, even if it is saddled with warts, and we must endure a corrupt government class that everyday seeks to further impoverish us, exert greater control over us and spread the U.S. empire further. Thankfully, for a few days at least, Congress is not in session plotting to steal our wealth and liberty, although some of the most despicable liberty-stealing legislation in our history was conceived and set in motion while Congress was supposedly on recess.
We can relax today and count our blessings. Eat a hearty meal — or two. Enjoy a football game. Recharge our batteries.
But never forget that tyranny is but a step away. Politicians come dressed as sheep and promising to give us health, wealth and safety, but inside they are ravenous wolves and we’ve got to fight to keep them at bay… every day.
Meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!
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