[fgjhfgjh]

As to the Puritans we should all remember that their colony was failing until the Wampanoags helped.

and

It should also be noted that they did really poorly under socialism. Real socialism. Everybody shared everything.

The colony started doing well when they realized their error and allowed for private industry and profit.

First, in the interest of accuracy, you're both talking about the "Pilgrims," not the "Puritans." The Pilgrims settled in Plymouth, the Puritans in Boston. Plymouth was a separate colony until 1691.

As for "socialism," the Plymouth settlement practiced "common field" agriculture for the first few years. This is not "socialism," but rather a system where the community held land, which was assigned to individuals to cultivate. The cultivators kept their crop. It was a means of ensuring that everyone in the community had land to farm.

Common field agriculture survived into the 18th century in Britain, finally falling victim tio the "enclosure" movement. Enclosure acts allowed the feudal landlords to carve up the common fields and sell them for a quick buck (or pound, in this case). The result was millions of now landless poor who flocked to the cities where they became industrial workers, or to America.

We could return to the work ethic of the past by shrinking the middle class eliminating industrial jobs.

Well, we've sent our manufacturing jobs to China. Has it helped?

I think if de Tocqueville came today, he would see a strong work ethic in a number of places, not least among the recent immigrants that the Right likes to complain about.