Thursday, October 9, 2014

Which Way is Best? The World May Never Know

Recently in class we did an activity to represent the different kinds of government that influenced the industrial revolution. We played Rock Paper Scissors; we each started with 3 Hershey kisses, this represents the amount of money each of us had. The only exception was a few of us, those few started with 10. Then we played the game; we got to choose who we played with and if we lost you give your opponent one of your Hershey kisses. This keeps going and if you run out of Hershey kisses then you sit down and you are out, this was the result of most people’s games. The few exceptions though, got to keep playing. Even if you have only one Hershey kiss left and you don't want to risk getting out; you still have to play. This game created some frustration because the majority of us had only 3 to start with and we had a disadvantage to the few people that had 10. After a while we stopped and the teacher collected all of our chocolate, then redistributed it evenly so that each one of us had the exact same amount. Next we were given the option to play or not, when in the first round we had to play. This resulted in most people not playing because wisely, they did not want to risk losing their candy. This activity was fun in the sense that we were playing a silly game and only gambling candy, but for the people whose government this was representing they were gambling their health and their comfort. Needless to say our version of this was much less stressful but very depictive of the struggle none the less.
Both Karl Marx and Adam Smith wanted to help the poor, but they had drastically different approaches. Marxism is the process of Capitalism, then Socialism, then Communism. This means that at first in the step of Capitalism the economic classes were unequal. Some people had wealth beyond belief, but most had next to nothing; people were completely on their own. Next in Socialism what happened was that the government took control and then redistributed the resources evenly. Once everyone has equal ownership, classless society has been reached, and now communism begins. In communism people will not gamble their wealth in order to become more wealthy, they would rather stay at the same level as others rather than risk being less. This means there is no government needed, people will make agreements with others and will take care of themselves. The poor benefit from this system because they will then have the same amount of resources as everyone else. The The Invisible Hand is the form of government that Adam Smith created in order to help reduce poverty. This system is the idea that free trade, free migration and limited government will turn the economy around. This system is when the government sits back and doesn't do much when it comes down to controlling the people. It plays out to be people competing against each other for business, even if it means lower setting a lower price. This gives the buyer more options when it comes down to what they can afford. Benefitting the poor amazingly The Invisible Hand is also a form of government that helps out our economy.
Marxism and Smith’s Invisible Hand Theory are very different. In Marxism, the government has to take control of the people in order for them to eventually be equal and for the government to be nonexistent. In The Invisible Hand the government does nothing at all and lets people who sell things compete against each other for lower prices. I think that the Invisible Hand is a better system of government than Marxism. This is because in Marxism, the government has to take away some people’s wealth, that is something that they may have worked very hard for. Otherwise in The Invisible Hand people don’t necessarily have to have the same amount of everything, but they still end up having a better life than they would have without a system like this.

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