While Mr. Marbury's analysis of the Thanksgiving story is both insightful and interesting, I would issue a word of caution: in economics, as in health, moderation is often the key to success.

The same longing for personal wealth and prosperity that at its best allowed the Pilgrims to survive also resulted, at its worst, in the death, forced resettlement, and social destruction of most of the original native population of the United States.

Free-market capitalism has led to some of the world's greatest inventions and most powerful societies. It has also led to rapacious corporations so driven by an eternal desire for money that they will do anything to increase their bottom line -- including, in the drug industry alone, inventing "new" diseases that they can pretend to cure, selling useless drugs, and hiding evidence that their products are killing people.

Socialism has in the past resulted in brutally repressive societies where individual freedom was sacrificed to the state. However, its principles also helped the United States recover from the devastating Great Depression, and have in many places helped widen the availability of education and health care.

Mercola.com is focused primarily on health care, not economics -- but it would be foolish to deny that economics play a pivotal role in modern health care.

• What drugs are being sold?
• How are they advertised?
• What supplements are banned from a share of the marketplace?
• Who controls what studies are conducted, and how?

As with so much else, the answer lies somewhere in the middle: neither with the unfettered greed of total free-market capitalism, nor with the oppressive overregulation that comes with complete state control. Individuals must be free to make choices and take responsibility for their own health, and regulations and watchdogs must exist to ensure that poisons are not being foisted on an unsuspecting populace.

The current, corrupted and conflicted medical paradigm usually swings too far in favor of allowing major multinational corporations get away with whatever they want. But in our efforts to swing it back the other way, we cannot lose sight of the fact that stifling medical invention by removing all incentive to innovate is not in our best interest either.

This article generated quite a number of reader comments in the Vital Votes section. Matthew from Illinois writes:

"Austrian economics should be required learning in every education. Ignorance of the basics of economics is resposible for more stupidity than I would care to admit. All too often arguments based on emotions are made to implement policies that defy common sense and strip our freedoms."

But Joel from New York City has a different take:

"I read your article about the hoax of Thanksgiving, and I couldn't believe what you identified as the hoax ... Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1637, to revel in a massacre of Native Americans of the Pequot People. That was the apparent pay back for the Native people teaching the new arrivals how to survive the harsh winter.

"When Americans say that they are giving thanks for the land as if it were a gift from a deity, the fact is that the indigenous peoples were nearly exterminated, yes, often in the name of a deity, so that their land could be converted from a shared creation into a free maket property belonging to the individuals who forcibly stole it, along with millions of lives. That land grab, enforced by genocide, was a principle development in creating the wealth and prosperity.

"... The ruling class is terrified of socialism, because it means returning the wealth that they monopolize to be shared by all who created it. Yes free enterprise made a great historic contribution to expanding production, at one time, but today has been taken over by a monopoly at the top in a corporate-financial elite, as the pivot of all policy."

Jim from Massachusetts, however, thinks the main issue should be a different one:

"It's always edifying to know the history (especially the history not in the books), but let's give thanks for the modern evolution of this holiday.  Thanksgiving is relatively stress-free and simple.  It brings families together.  No one has to shop (except for food, which they do anyway every week) or worry about what people will think of their gifts ... There's football on the television.  What's not to like?

"I'll take more days in the year built on families gathered to give thanks and appreciation for all they have, especially the fine, locally-produced organic food on the table."

You can review other responses at Vital Votes, add your own thoughts or vote on other comments by first registering at Vital Votes.