No Eating in Class

One of our instructions while the Hershey
 kisses were being handed out during our simulation. :)

To learn about communism, capitalism and socialism, our class did an activity with chocolate! We used Hershey kisses to represent wealth. To explain capitalism, two people in the class were given more candy than the others. Then we played rock, paper, scissors, shoot. If you lost, then you had to hand over a piece of candy to the winner. I ran out of candy within 4 games of rock, paper, scissors, shoot and was forced to sit down and remain poor. It was very sad. And frustrating. But a few lucky, and wealthy people were soon left with a lot of chocolate. This represented capitalism because at the beginning of the game, each student was given the hope of taking part in and controlling industry, through our Hershey kisses. We were also given the freedom of competition to choose who we played with and the end result was that many people were very poor and didn't have any chocolate left, while a handful of people were very rich and had a lot of candy. This demonstration represented capitalism.  I just wanted to eat some chocolate, and was sad when all of it was gone. But I got some candy back when Mrs. Gallagher collected all of our candy and redistributed it equally to all of the students. We were now simulating socialism. Then we were again asked if we wanted to play rock, paper, scissors, shoot for candy, with and only with the candy we were given (2 Hershey kisses). Most of us refused to play because if we lost our candy, we wouldn't have any to eat, but if we kept it, we could eat it and any candy we might have won. Mrs. Gallagher represented the government, and she controlled the industry and our candy. She tried to make each student equal to the others by giving everyone the same number of Hershey kisses. Most people refused to play again. But those who did and lost their candy were still treated well by others. People were kind to each other and shared their candy with those who lost all of theirs to rock, paper, scissors, shoot. This represented communism because no government was needed to watch us and regulate our ‘wealth’ because we had regulated it ourselves by helping those who had none left. This self- regulation and sharing with one another represents communism.

The Communist Manifesto, written in German
By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Source: http://www.historytoday.com/roger-spalding/communist-manifesto

Karl Marx wrote three very important theories about the way industry should be owned and run. He wrote about these systems of government in the Communist Manifesto. These systems were capitalism, socialism and communism. Capitalism is a system in which private owners have the chance and hope of taking part in and controlling industry.  Capitalism also allows for the freedom of competition, but results in struggle for the people who have started off with different economic standings and unequal economic classes. But in capitalism, there is a possibility that hard workers can increase their social standing. There is no change in social standing in Marx’s other theory, socialism. In socialism, there are no social classes because the government controls industry and tries to make sure everyone is economically equal, that everyone has the same amount of money. Communism is another one of Marx’s theories for government and also aims for a classless society. The theory Marx had was that there would be no need for government because people would help others in the community and share everything with one another. This idea for a lack of government was also shared in another theory called The Invisible Hand. In addition to Marx’s Communist Manifesto about capitalism, socialism and communism, Adam Smith created a theory called The Invisible Hand. His theory was that the government should let the people buy and sell goods themselves without interference. He says that good and fair companies who offer quality products at little cost will succeed. The economy will grow and be controlled by itself. The only problem with this theory is that it could take a while for the economy to control itself and while waiting for the economy to figure itself out, there will be suffering such as unemployment and possibly poverty, along the way. This theory also gave the people the power to decide how they wanted to run their business. This idea is very unlike communism, because in communism, everything is shared equally among everyone. This system also helps the poor by encouraging competition between businesses so that the business with the cheapest price and the highest quality products gets the most business. The poor are getting quality products for low prices, which is good because they may not be able afford all the quality products that the rich may be able to purchase.

In my opinion, The Invisible Hand theory is better than the Communist Manifesto. I believe that the end result of The Invisible Hand, having companies compete with one another to create quality products at low prices, and for the economy to run itself without the help of the government is worth the unemployment and suffering that it may take to create this economy. Communism would also be ideal, if it was implemented in the right way. It is not working in countries, mainly in Asia, because the government is involved and the idea of communism was not meant to have the government involved. I believe that any system in which the government is hands off is the best system for a country. The people should control the economy and the demand for certain quality products, not the government. This is why I believe in The Invisible Hand.