Jake Zerillo

    In class today we did something unique by doing experiment and how it reveals success in capitalism and the American Dream. First we got put into four groups and randomly picked a number in which that number had certain tools that we were aloud to use to make our own society. Each group had to make a ring, a house, a burger, and to make a book but you couldn't just throw each of them together how ever you want to you have to follow specific measurements and instructions to make a basic civilization. Even though we all had to make the same thing it was harder for some because we all had different tools and some would start with more tools than others and you had to trade and nagociate with other groups to get the tools you need to make everything. Our was definitely given the shorter end of the stick because all we had was two pieces of paper one wavy, one wooden, a pen and just five paper clips.
    No matter how hard we tried our group struggled to trade with other groups because they had more tools than us therefore we needed more things then they did and we had little to trade and negotiate with. Therefore with this problem our group did not achieve success today because at the end of class we only had completed the burger, the ring and we would have completed the book but we did not have enough paper to make six pages. While another group finished everything because they had more material to start of with, which gave them more to bargain and trade to get what they need to finish everything. Some things that helped our group succeed enough to get some of it done was us improvising. For example, we knew that a paper clip was an inch long so since we didn't have a ruler and we did have a pen would would just mark each inch with the pen and we had to fold our paper until it ripped because we weren't able to bargain for scissors.  And clearly not starting with as many tools as other groups held us back. Therefore this experiment reveals that success in capitalism or the american dream does not always work because no matter how hard you work to achieve your american dream, some people are already given everything you ever wanted straight from the beginning and the American dream is a lot easier for them to achieve. Im not saying that if you work as hard as you can to achieve the american dream it won't happen, it still does happen to some people but it is almost impossible to compete for that american dream that someone else basically already starts with.