One of the first settlements of Europeans in America was Jamestown, where socialism was practiced until many learned its failure…communal practices beget, well, misery.

“Phillip A. Bruce, a late 19th century US historian, wrote of the Jamestown immigrants, “The settlers did not have even a modified interest in the soil … . Everything produced by them went into the store, in which they had no proprietorship.” The result as Bruce wrote would be what anyone who has any knowledge of human nature would expect, men, even the most energetic, refused to work.” (bold, u/l emphasis added)

When men were given property, and kept products of their own labor, that changed.

“Jamestown changed course just two years later in 1611 with arrival of the ‘high marshall’ Sir Thomas Dale from the UK. He understood the problem, freed the settlers by abrogating communal ownership. Each man received three acres of land and, other than a lump sum tax of 2 ½ barrels of corn, did not have to contribute anything to the common pool. The colony immediately began to prosper. It prospered because each individual directly benefited by his labour and knew that he would also bear the full consequences of any reduction in output. Private ownership and capitalism worked.”

“Communism doesn’t work because it destroys the reward and work nexus; because the absence of property rights heralds the end of all incentive to produce; and because humans do not wish to sacrifice themselves to the common good.” 

(all bold emphasis added)

The first democratic legislative body was established in 1619. The rest is history.

“Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” (Geo. Santayana)

Democrat voters need to wake up and smell the failure.