Class last Thursday was a very fun and delicious class. We, as a class, were distributed Starbursts as we walked into the door. Most students were handed 3 Starbursts, but some were handed 10. This uneven handing out of Starbursts represents the uneven distribution of money during the Industrial Revolution. Skill sets did not matter back then, if you were born into a poor family, you grew up poor. The people who were given 3 Starbursts represented those people. The people who were given 10 Starbursts represented the people who were born into rich family. Then students would play rock paper scissors, and the winner would take a Starburst from the loser of the game. Mrs. Bailey represented the government in this game, all she did was give out the Starbursts and then let everyone play. People ended up broke, cheating, and even stealing. This whole situation of uneven distribution represented Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism. This also represented Marx's idea of Laissez Faire , this means that the government let people do their own thing. But after after the class struggle and everyone complaining about all of the mayhem, Mrs. Bailey (The government) collected all of the Starbursts and redistributed an even amount to everyone. Then, she watched over and made sure there was no stealing but still allowed the people to make their own decisions. This represented Smith's idea of the Invisible Hand. After the redistribution of Starbursts, everyone seemed to be more happy with what they had and things worked out on their own.
Both Marx and Smith had very hands-off approaches for government leadership. Both of them wanted to help out the poor by changing the ways of the government. Marx's idea of Laissez Faire was that the government would take no role and let the people do their own thing. The idea was that people would take their own course and they would fix their ow things their way. Smith's idea of the Invisible Hand was a similar idea on how the people would make their won decisions on how they wanted their government to go. But the difference was the Invisible Hand was different then Laissez Faire, in the Invisible Hand, the government gave people guidance and then leave people alone and then the market would improve on its own. The Invisible Hand allowed people to make their own prices and keep lowering prices and keep competing with each other. Both of these ideas both help out the poor. During the Socratic Seminar we talked a lot about how both theories helped out the poor during this period of time. Julianne talked about how some people can be born into rich families and then have no ambition, and also some people are born into poor families and then have a huge ambition to proceed to do good and work hard. When we talked about how they both helped the poor, Mrs. Bailey said how not everyone get what they deserve and how people should be given the opportunities that everyone else gets. This shows how much of a change these theories were from the government at this time, and how this changes helped out the poor.
In my opinion I think that the Invisible Hand is a better theory is a better solution. I think this because even though both theories are hand off, the Invisible Hand theory gives guidance to the people. I think personally that this is a great solution for government because there is no main rules that hold people back. Also people aren't being held back by the social class they were born into. Also, people take their own roles in what they o, but it isn't just one giant free for all. People get their say, but also have the idea of whats going on. The market is being improved, but the government isn't doing it on their own. The people actually are doing most of the work, but aren't completely oblivious to what they're doing.
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