John Stossel Says We Should BeThankful for Private Property

The Pilgrims started out with communal property
rules. When they first settled at Plymouth, they were told: “Share
everything, share the work, and we’ll share the harvest.” The
colony’s contract said their new settlement was to be a “common.”
Everyone was to receive necessities out of the common stock. There
was to be little individual property. They nearly starved and
created what economists call the “tragedy of the commons.” But
then, after the colony’s governor, William Bradford, wrote that
they should “set corn every man for his own particular,” they
dropped the commons idea. He assigned to every family a parcel of
land to treat as its own. The results were dramatic, writes John
Stossel. Much more corn was planted. Instead of famine, there was
plenty. Thanks to private property, they got food—and thanks to it,
we have food today.

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