Sadness: The Story of a Young Success Who Lost Everything

In class last week we did an interactive lesson with candy so clearly it was very fun. However, the purpose of it was not nearly as fun, we learned firsthand how Karl Marx's theory on the evolution of economy would start with the anger of the poor and eventually end with total communism for everyone. It started unfairly to begin with everyone had two Hershey kisses except for two jerks who were handed eight with no reasoning. As the war of rock, paper, scissors went on most people lost their two and had to sit down, all angry about the loss of their candy and how the people who started with eight were still in. I happened to be great at rock, paper, scissors and after losing my very first match quickly gained a lot of candy through my hard work.

A sad reminder of my humble beginning

Though each match was nerve-wracking and I had some ups and downs along the way I ended up more successful than those who had started with a guaranteed wealth.

"Started from the bottom, now we here" -Drake

But the harsh realities of unequal class systems and a struggling economy were not through with me yet, and soon the oppressed rose in protest of the inescapable poverty they were trapped in. The complaints and actions of the large majority forced the government stepped in to steal from the successful in a socialist redistribution of resources. They took control of everything and seized the fruit of my life achievements to give everyone no matter if they had nothing or everything to begin with. We each got two pieces of candy in the end, and the government could have as much as they wanted while acting like everyone was equal. When given the opportunity to play the free market again, the majority of kids said no since they didn't want to risk losing what they had. 

Karl Marx's theory of the people taking a road of anger and fear until they reached communism worked out perfectly in our class. He believed that the clear divide between rich and poor would drive those in poverty, most of the population, to lash out at the wealthy through violent protests until the government interferes in an attempt at creating a class-less society. The goal is to achieve complete communism, a society that agrees to share resources equally and does not need a government to regulate the distribution. 

Karl Marx

Adam Smith had a different approach to helping the poor and the economy while still keeping freedom of businesses and a better class system that allowed for people to succeed or fail themselves. He called this system the invisible hand, which we now refer to as Capitalism. The invisible hand is the idea of competition and consumers choice. In order to be the most successful businesses had to draw people in by selling the highest quality products for the lowest price. It would help the poor by encouraging any company that wanted to be successful to pay their workers enough that they could then go out and buy from the business they work for. Eventually, once people were paid enough to engage in commerce and spend less for higher quality of those  products, they could, if they wanted to, create their own business and new ideas and products to keep the market moving and improving and making consumers even happier. With this system, the free trade of the people would run the economy, businesses constantly changing to the consumers's wants and needs. Government would not need to interfere in the process at all. 

However, capitalism wasn't perfect. It takes a very long time to work itself out and often has long ups and downs in the middle, as anything run by the general population would. It also still has class divisions, very successful business owners become wealthy enough for the rest of their future generations to never need to work again and with competition, for one person to win another one has to lose, leading to job loss and bankruptcy which causes the government to try to help again. It's even worse today with things like advertisements and name brands guiding consumers more than high quality and low prices do. 

American hero Ron Swanson sums up the true result of capitalism in modern day economics. (from the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness as seen on Parks and Recreation)

Even if capitalism isn't as great in practice as it is in theory it is still much better than practiced communism. While communism looks like a sort of brilliant idea on paper, no one has succeed in actually reaching complete communism of the people. Instead it has been used more for the basis of socialistic and dictator run countries like Russia and North Korea where no one can be rich or poor, unless of course you're part of the government, which strictly regulates every facet of business and trade. Either way with communism and every form based from it, it is impossible to get any higher in life through hard work and effort. I believe that neither form of economy is flawless and as long as humans live, we never will create one. It is impossible to have freedom and progress without class, in order for anyone to be successful others have to fail; if everyone is successful then technically no one is and you're back at complete and total equality with no individuality.