class activity on scialism and communism

On Friday  in class we did an activity to symbolize capitalism and socialism. The first part of the activity was to show us how capitalism works. Ms Gleason gave some kids three kisses and some kids two. Sam and i were given ten kisses to symbolize three social classes. we then began playing rock paper scissors shoot. If you lost you had to give the person who won one of your Hershey kisses. Because people started with less then me i had many chances to play. in the end i gained 4 kisses after going 6 and 2. This activity showed us what it was like to live in a capitalist economy. The second round she gave everyone the same amount of kisses 3 each. This showed us what socialism was like because we were forced to trade.  I found the activity very fun but I think that is because I am a competitive person.

When people here the words communism and socialism they think negative. Marx's  ideas were meant to be just ways to manage a country's economy. In modern day country's are moving away from communism and socialism because of the effects it has on them. They usually end up turning into dictatorships where one leader holds all of the government power. In Marx's theory of capitalism he thinks that the poor will be able to thrive off of each other to create wealth based on there labor that they provide each other. In socialism and the government plays a large role in the economy. The government collects and re distributes wealth. They re distribute the wealth evenly among a body of people. In communism is meant to be a utopian society where the people govern themselves but keep the wealth the same and make sure no body gets ahead of anyone else. These tend to fail because why would you want to be the same as everyone else. Smith had a theory that made a lot of sense in some ways and has a little bit to do with the way Americas economy is run today. His theory was the invisible hand. This explained that is a body of people was left alone this is how they would run there country. IT said that the people will go were the goods are cheaper and better quality. The invisible hand would point the consumers in the direction of the cheaper and better goods. A good example of this in America today is gas stations. When you drive down main street in reading there are many gas stations. They offer varying prices from $3.00 a gallon to $3.45(just an example). Today while I was driving through I saw that the gas stations that had more expensive gas had no people in them because the station next door had cheaper gas and were filled with people. This shows that people are always going to buy the cheaper product.



In my opinion the theory of invisible hand is the best theory. Without government interference people that work harder and do better things will be able to pay for it. Also with competition between businesses it forces the price to go down in order to attract consumers. In a planned economy such as socialism and communism all the people are forced to do and have the same things. This could create a monopoly in a business run by the government making the government drive the price up or down based on how they think it should be. Because everything is regulated by the government there isn't any competitors to drive down price. With the invisible hand you have to work for what you are given and if you work harder and better you will be compensated better,



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3u4EFTwprM