(Hershey's) Kisses to Marx and Smith

Last week in Honors History, we had a very exciting lesson on capitalism, socialism and communism.  To begin class, each student received two Hersey's Kisses, but were not allowed to eat them.  Two lucky students were randomly given eight chocolates.  Since most teenagers are chocoholics like myself, we were all pretty upset at the unfair amount of candy being given.  This represented capitalism, then Mrs.Gallagher asked us each to play rock-paper-scissors with one another, and the winner got to take a chocolate from the other.  Representing socialism, many of the "poor" students that only started with two chocolates became the "richest" in the class, while one of the "richer" students ended up being broke.  This left only the "rich" students happy, so Mrs.Gallagher collected all of the chocolates, and tortured us by representing the government, and eating all of the chocolates she desired.  After watching a video and learning about the Invisible Hand, a theory created by Adam Smith to represent a self-regulating market, we learned about communism when Mrs.Gallagher distributed 2 chocolates back to each student.  I really enjoyed this lesson because it was a fun and interactive way to learn about a more complicated subject.

In socialism, a government had ownership of industry, so they regulated distribution and production of products.  The goal of socialism was to create a classless society, but it did not work because the rich people were still very rich, and the poor people were very poor, and could not do anything to change that.  Karl Marx wanted to create a system of capitalism, which would've provided the opportunity for freedom of competition, and private ownership of industry.  The poor people liked the idea of being able to take control of their situations, but the rich did not.  Many of the rich that inherited money were not prepared to have to work, which compromised their wealth, and pushed them to exile Marx.  Adam Smith came up with the idea of the Invisible Hand, a system in which the government did not intervene, and marketeers had the chance to make profit according to the demand of the people.  The biggest benefit of the Invisible Hand was that high quality products and services were able to be sold for less money, but producers would still profit.  The biggest hindrance of Smith's theory was that it took a very long time to fall into place, which could leave a country in a depression for some time.

I support the Invisible Hand the most because it is fair for everyone that wants to be successful, and also for consumers.  I like the fact that people that want and need to make money have the opportunity to, if they get through the tough times, for a great reward.  I also like that the idea of a self-regulating market makes people work together to sell and buy fair products.