Why Thanksgiving Should Give Modern Socialists Pause

Surging interest in socialism among younger Americans has revived an old debate about how societies allocate resources and reward effort. This piece looks back at early colonial experiments, traces how a shift in property and incentives helped produce abundance, and argues that many of today’s material comforts—especially affordable food—stem from decentralized markets and competition rather than top-down planning.

Lessons from early colonial experiments

When the Pilgrims first settled in New England they pooled land and food, assigning equal shares regardless of individual effort. Governor William Bradford recorded that many people did not work as expected, citing “weakness and inability” and noting that “much was stolen.” A similar communal arrangement at Jamestown ended in extreme hardship, including starvation and reports of survival practices that horrified contemporaries.

“Every family was assigned a parcel of land,” Bradford wrote, and only then did people “go willingly into the field.”

That shift—assigning families their own plots and allowing them to keep the fruits of their labor—changed incentives and productivity. The harvest that followed made a communal feast possible and is one origin story of the modern Thanksgiving celebration.

How markets helped build abundance

Over centuries, the combination of property rights, voluntary exchange and competition has contributed to large increases in food production and falling relative costs. Today Americans spend roughly 10% of disposable income on food, about half the share experienced several decades ago. Much of that progress resulted from innovation by farmers, entrepreneurs, food processors and logisticians operating in market systems.

Decentralized decision-making allows many actors—farmers, truckers, grocers, engineers and others—to respond quickly to changing conditions. Competition can push retailers to sell loss-leader items like turkeys to attract customers, and global competition among airlines and carriers has lowered travel costs, making it easier for people to get home for the holidays.

Comparing alternatives

Historical and contemporary examples show that when governments centrally control production and distribution, shortages and inefficiencies often follow. In several countries where state control has been dominant, residents face chronic shortages of basic goods, power outages and widespread service failures. These examples are commonly cited as warnings about the limits and risks of centralized economic planning.

A balanced takeaway for today

The point is not to claim markets are perfect or to ignore problems such as inequality and environmental challenges. Rather, Thanksgiving offers a moment to recognize how the current system has delivered abundance and to consider how policy choices might preserve productive incentives while addressing real social concerns.

This holiday, take a moment to acknowledge the many people whose daily work helps put food on the table—farmers, truck drivers, pilots, grocery employees, engineers and entrepreneurs—and to think carefully about which policies are most likely to sustain abundance and opportunity for the future.