Starburst Extravaganza

In class lately we had an experiment that helped explain communism, socialism, and capitalism. In the beginning of class each student was given three pieces of candy, with the exception for three kids getting ten each. Then each student would match up and play rock, paper, and scissors. Whoever wins gets one candy from the other player. This went on for a while. I personally lost my three pieces of candy in the first three games. I then to gain more candy stole pieces of candy. This was easy in the beginning because when someone was playing a game they would turn their back and leave their candy on the table. It was a little tougher near the end since everyone knew I was stealing. A lot of people argued and yelled over the candy and I though it was very funny and a great game. When it ended everyone had different amounts of candy. The teacher collected all the candy. Some people got angry because they had lots of candy and they didn’t want to give it up. I on the other hand only had one so I was fine. That was the example of capitalism. We then moved to socialism where each student was given three pieces of candy. Every one was equal. No one played because they didn’t want to risk it. That was socialism, which was then basically communism since everyone was the same and no one wanted to play anymore. This was extremely fun and really helped me understand the difference between the different forms.

Marx’s theories on how the poor helped themselves focused on five main groups. The first is capitalism. Where every one starts with a certain amount of money and what they do with that money is up to them. The amount of money they start out with depends on their job, and possibly how hard they work. If they use it wisely they may make more. If they spend it freely that is their problem and they need to help themselves get out of it. This results in unequal classes. Then that would soon lead to complaining and maybe soon revolting. Then socialism is made. The government collects all the money and hands it out equally to everyone. Then come communism. Where everyone is equal in pay and there is no need for a government because everyone is equal. Smith’s idea of “the invisible hand” was similar to Marx’s views. The invisible hand meant the government would not interfere with the businesses. The supply and demand would regulate the businesses. If everyone wanted your product you made more of it and made more money. If no one wanted your product you would either go out of business or lower your prices/improve the product. The competition between companies will push each company to do better and therefore they will succeed.

I think communism sounds great but not to the extant that countries have taken it. There will never be a classless community where everyone has the exact amount of money as everyone else and the government doesn’t intervene at all. You would need to start a new country for that to be truly possible. A government can’t just say for everyone to give up all their money and then they will spread it out evenly. I think you need a culmination of both Smith’s and Marx’s ideas. You need a government to some extent to make laws but they don’t need to interfere as much if everyone is happy. But there is also the point to bring up. Who would be happy with just enough money to have the necessities? Of course those who have below the average, but what about middle class and up. The middle class and up make up a large amount of the population. Also people would feel cheated. If I worked harder than someone else and they got paid the same I would be mad. Overall as a whole we would be better off with different classes and a government that helps us when needed.