2
Reading cured my mental internal friction Compared with other countries, the United States has a characteristic that it does not recognize public ownership. In the United States, all public institutions that shoulder the functions of social management or pure enterprises are privately owned. For example, the U.S. military-industrial complex is privately owned, and even prisons are outsourced. The logistics of the US military are also privately owned, which is really unimaginable in other countries. But Americans think it makes sense, because they think it's more efficient. Why do Americans think this way? In this issue, let's analyze the reasons for this.
The rejection of public ownership in the United States is related to a failed attempt at public ownership that American voters experienced when they started on the American continent. At that time, the male adult immigrants who were aboard the "Mayflower" held a meeting before disembarking and signed a convention, which is known in history as the "Mayflower" Convention.
Soon after the group of immigrants came ashore, they were attacked by the Indians, and wild beasts often came to eat and bite people at night, coupled with the lack of food, the weather was cold, and no one dared to leave the group, because leaving would mean death. Under the persecution of dying, the big guy can only huddle together to keep warm. They had to use an organizational method similar to military communism, building houses collectively and dividing labor to defend them. The following spring, half of them were still sick and dead. Under the leadership of the Governor, they farmed collectively, went out fishing, and made friendly agreements with neighboring Indian tribes. At that time, rations and food supplies per person per day were distributed equally from collective warehouses. Because there was not enough food to eat, in order to wait for the harvest season, they had to lower their rations, and through fish hunting, they persevered until the autumn harvest, and finally ushered in the first Thanksgiving after arriving in the Americas. In order to cope with the attacks of a small number of barbaric Indians, the members of the farm were divided into four squadrons, which were assigned military and production tasks, and the collective farm worked all year round, and there was no rest at Christmas.
In November of that year, 35 new immigrants arrived from the Old World. Because there were suddenly 35 more mouths, the grain harvested in the first year was still not enough to eat, and in the second year, when the harvest was not good, each person could only get 3 taels of bread per day. By the end of May, they ran out of food, and they had to feed themselves by fishing and hunting. At that time, the yield of corn was very low, and when it was about to ripen, there were always people stealing it. In the absence of a check-and-hold mechanism, hunger prevents people from being constrained by their conscience, and the theft of maize is becoming more and more serious. If the theft is not stopped, there will be an even greater famine the following year. They had to borrow food from friendly Indians by eating their own food.
There is not enough food to eat all year round, and it is not always a solution. As we entered our third year of farming, the big guys had to sit down and discuss what to do. The vast majority of the people believe that commune-style collective labor can no longer continue, that it is unfair to the strong labor force that more work cannot be rewarded, that the enthusiasm and initiative of labor cannot be brought into play, and that no one wants to give nothing for the family of others. The Governor, on the advice of the elders, decided to divide the land into households, each to do his own work, and the property rights of the land remained with the collective, and the farm and the members signed an agreement: male residents over the age of 16 were to pay 35 litres of public grain to the collective every year, which could also be converted into other equivalents, and the public grain was mainly used for public expenses, such as the remuneration of farm officials.
The Governor then made a visual inspection of each family and allocated a plot of land of the right size, according to the size of the population. In the past, women never worked in the fields, believing that only the inferior could do farm work, and their husbands were reluctant to let them work in the fields. But after the field was divided, not only did the women go to work in the fields, but even the children rushed to work in the fields. Collective labor is very different from working alone, and the enthusiasm for labor is very different. William Bradford, the elected governor, said in his memoirs: "The idea of dispossession of private property, and the inclusion of private property in the collective, is profoundly unrealistic." "Practice has shown that the original design and planning of the communist way of life is against human nature.
After the division of the fields, because there were still a few months before the autumn harvest of that year, during the months of lack of food and clothing, the big guys continued to prepare food together and make a living through fishing and hunting. During these months, there is no food and people can only eat meat. Some people will say that it is not more refreshing to eat meat. In fact, in terms of eating meat, Europeans are far inferior to Chinese, Europeans only eat barbecue, and there is no natural seasoning, and it is definitely not possible to eat every day.
At that time, it was the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty in China. At that time, there were frequent famines in China, and China also had the problem of overpopulation. But China's rulers were incompetent, did not know how to open up colonies abroad, and were far less far-sighted than the European aristocracy. Western missionaries once suggested that the Ming court send people to study in Europe, but the court did not agree, and no one dared to go.
During these months of scarcity, the farm divides the people who go out to sea to hunt fish. When the fish caught by the previous team were about to be eaten, the next team immediately went out to sea by boat, and although it was also difficult, the people's mental outlook was very different from before. After hard work, every family had a bumper harvest this autumn, and since then, the new immigrants no longer have to worry about running out of food and famine. Families who are good at growing corn can also exchange surplus grain for other daily necessities.
After the harvest, the advantages of private ownership were no longer discussed, and the farm members demanded that the allocated land be fixed. The original plan to allocate land by drawing lots every year was opposed by everyone. They believed that it was unfair to fertilize and nurture the land after one year of hard work, and then let others sit on it the next year, so the big men unanimously agreed to divide the farm land equally before the spring sowing in 1624, and change it from the original collective labor of the land to the individual labor of the private family of the land. Eventually, the Plymouth settlement was established by the Mayflower, which became the first European settlement to successfully establish itself in the Americas.
Decades later, the settlement was home to a population of several hundred, descendants of the first Europeans born in North America. As the population grew, many people left Plymouth to explore the interior of the American continent, and after more than 100 years of development, a vibrant American nation was formed.
The Mayflower's experience of immigrants in North America proves that the establishment of civilized social groups cannot be based on the consciousness of the majority alone. This is because no matter how high the consciousness is, it is impossible to resist the selfishness and speculation of a small number of people, and the only way to put an end to the speculation of a few people is to establish a set of social rules that everyone must abide by, and also to establish a rational economic system. This is precisely the original intention of the United States to insist on safeguarding private property, to make the economic system conform to human nature, rather than to transform human nature for the sake of an imaginary economic system.
In terms of the perception of equality, the Chinese are completely different from the Europeans, after the European immigrants of the Mayflower landed. John Carver was unanimously elected as the first governor. After Carver's death, they elected Bradford as a second governor, and from then on, the governor was directly elected by the entire electorate, once a year. In the 36 years that followed, William Bradford was elected 30 times.
As mentioned above, the year 1620 when the Mayflower arrived in the Americas was the 48th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty of China, and if the Mayflower was not ridden by Europeans, but by Ming immigrants from China, it would be difficult to build a society like North America. Because after the Chinese established the farm, the governor originally elected by the big guys would soon use his resource advantage to live a better life than ordinary people. For example, he was able to get more food instead of working in the fields. Once authority is established, a handful of lackeys will immediately emerge from the crowd and shout for such an authority, thereby obtaining material benefits that are higher than others. The farm has developed to this point, even if the vast majority of people do not have enough to eat all year round, as long as the few people at the top level can eat and drink spicy food without having to work in the field, even if the big guys propose to divide the field and work alone, they will never agree.