Government makes a Marx (mark)

          This week in class we were learning about capitalism, socialism, and communism. We did an activity to demonstrate what it feels like to live in a communist society and to live in a capitalist society. Each student was handed three chocolates, except for two people who were handed 10 chocolates, they represented the rich people of the community. The chocolate represented ourl money. Next, everyone went around the room playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!" and giving away a piece of chocolate when you lost. This round of games was to represent capitalism. Each person had private ownership and freedom of competition to do what they want with their candy. In the end, some people had no chocolate, they were poor,  the proletariat group. Others had a plethora of chocolate and were the upper class, the  bourgeoise. Next, our teacher collected all our candy, like the government collecting our money. She redistributes the candy equally giving each person three chocolates. This caused a problem with the rich because the government took their money and just gave it away. However the poor loves this because they got money without having to work for it. This part of the activity represented socialism and communism. This activist was both fun and frustrating. At first, it was fun to gamble and play "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!" when you could end up with a ton of candy. After the redistribution, no one wanted to play because they didn't want to risk losing the only 3 chocolates they got. It was frustrating losing money, chocolate, and getting it taken away in the end. 

          Both Marx and Smith had very different ideas on how their systems would help the poor. Marx believed that his government of Capitalism, Socialism then Communism would help the poor by even distrbuting money to all of the people therefore eliminating social classes. Marx thought that by having a classless society everyone will be happy because they are all equal with no competition. Smiths theory of the "Invisible Hand",( video link  http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyVXa-u4wE&feature=youtu.be )helps the poor in the way that he thought that the flourishing of the market would make lower prices and the poor would be able to buy lower priced, high quality items. He thought his theory would allow poor people to have more options.

          I believe that the "Invisible Hand" is the better theory. It allows the people who worked hard to keep the money they deserve while the people who work hard but can't make money can also find a way to get a higher income. The third theory of government is Capitalism, like what we have in the present. There are class distinctions but everyone has equal opportunities to make money based on their effort.