In class, we played a game that represents the three forms of government; capitalism, socialism, and communism. First, everybody was given a certain amount of starbursts. Most people were given three and some were given 10. We were then told to play rock paper scissors and if we won, we earned a starburst, and if we lost we had to give our starburst to the opponent. This part was used to represent capitalism because people had private ownership of their starbursts with an unequal number of the candy. People had freedom of competition because they got to choose who they played against. Also, it ended in unequal economic status because some people won and some people lost. People did “revolt” by complaining about the fairness of the game. After the capitalism part, the candy was collected by the teacher (government) and redistributed equally among everybody.This part represents socialism because the government (teacher) had ownership of the industry (candy), the goal was to bring economic equality, and it aimed and achieved a classless society. After the socialism part, we were told we could do what we wanted and were not being controlled by the teacher (government) meaning there were no rules made stating how we could play. This represents communism because there was no government and the goal of having a classless society was achieved because no one wanted to play again. I thought this game was fun because we got to choose who we got to play and when we wanted to play. I thought it was frustrating because some people were given more to begin with which is not fair to the people who started out with less.
I did not participate in the Socratic Seminar, but I did observe the people who did. One of the most interesting topics that people brought up was the fact that communism is not achievable. Amanda brought up a good point by saying that it can’t be achieved because there will always be someone who wants more than someone else which will lead them to have more than other people which will lead to superiority which will lead back to leadership control. They also said that socialism is not a good idea because some people that had more than others and worked harder than others will get mad because they get all of their rights and goods taken away. The last interesting point I heard was that capitalism was the most idealistic choice of government because people get some freedom but are still controlled by the government.
Marx had a theory that he thought would help the poor succeed. He thought that if a government started out with capitalism it would end up as a communist government. He thought this because in capitalism the poor were unhappy because they did not have as much as others and they did not find the system fair. Then he thought the government would go to socialism because the poor would be happy this way due to being given an equal amount of money as everybody else. Now, this idea of socialism was nice for the poor but made the nobles and rich people angry because money was being taken away from them. Due to the rich being angry, the government would become a communist government. This is bad because with having everyone at an equal pay people would lose the drive to work hard for their money because why work hard when you can have an easy job and still make the same amount of money as someone with a very hard job.
Smith had a theory which involved the invisible hand helping the poor. The invisible hand is the idea of competition of markets. People would start a company and more and more people would go into that industry because they see the other people in this industry being successful. With more and more people in an industry, that will cause some of the companies to lower their prices because they want more business than the other store that sells the same thing. This will keep happening which will keep creating more industries and more job opportunities for people such as the poor to make money. This will also benefit the poor because the prices will keep getting lower and lower and they won't have to spend as much as they usually do on goods.
I think the invisible hand theory is the best because it gives people the freedom to do what they want and not have to obey to a government telling what price to make their products.People will be able to do as they please and it will also make more job opportunities for people and make prices less expensive. Though this theory has a few flaws including businesses being destroyed by too much competition, I think this theory is very beneficial and is a much better idea than communism.
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