Despite current economic woes, this Thanksgiving Day we have a tremendous amount to be thankful for. In addition to health, family, friends and freedom; we also have capitalism. While slightly out of vogue, this tarnished system is still the best one going and its concepts are heavily ingrained in our collective history. Take Thanksgiving.
When the pilgrims tripped over Plymouth Rock in 1620, they brought with them the concept of "farming in common." Here, as a community, farmers tilled the land together and shared equally in its harvest. This would make for a nice grade school lesson in sharing, except it didn't work. As any red-blooded American banker can surmise, thrifty individuals that worked hard resented those that did not. Discontentment and underproduction reigned, until finally, after 3 winters of near-starvation and the loss of half of the colony, a new experiment was tried.
The mayor of Plymouth drew up a map and gave each family a plot of land to call its own. Of course, production increased by a factor of 5 the first year. As was noted at the time, "Private land made all hands industrious" and "Each family, attempting to better its standing in the community, increased the hours worked on each plot." After the first spring of this experiment, by the fall of 1623, families had enough extra crop production to share in a "day of thanksgiving, "proclaimed to thank God for good fortune." The following year, families specialized even more and produced such a bountiful harvest that, in addition to having the traditional feast, they started trading excess corn and wheat for furs, spices and goods. Commerce flourished and the concept of private land and nascent capitalism was solidified in American tradition.
On this Thanksgiving Day, we are thankful for our health, those around us (including our readership) and for our good fortune. We also acknowledge our most basic desire to get ahead in life, which helps create much of the bounty we enjoy. Like the Pilgrims back in 1623, sometimes harvests are simply a matter of putting in place the proper incentives.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and we wish all our readers a safe and joyous one. If you are looking for some humor today, we pass on our favorite Thanksgiving banker joke: A banker in Charlotte calls his son in San Francisco the week before Thanksgiving and says, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough. "Pop, what are you talking about?" the son asks. "We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the father replies. "We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her." Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts, "I'll take care of this." She calls home immediately and screams at her father, "You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there." As she hangs up her phone, the old man hangs up on his side and turns to his wife. "Okay," he says, "they're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way."