kayla edwards

Kayla Edwards

Today in class we had a competition to see who could build a “town” with education, food, shelter and minerals or resources, the fastest. However, each table was given different materials to work from and had to trade with other groups to get everything they needed to fulfill the requirements. My group was provided with a paper ruler, scissors, “wood” paper, “striped” paper, blank paper, a glue stick and a pen. From here all we needed was wavy paper and polka dotted paper. By having a majority of the supplies, this helped our group to be successful (if second place is considered successful). The first trade we made was a quarter of our striped paper for a quarter of wavy paper. After this we forgot we still needed polka dotted paper and shut off all trade with the other groups to prevent them from getting necessary supplies that we had. We thought this was smart at the time, however the other groups began to dislike us because we did not share and developed poor relationships with the people around us. Also, some hostile things were said when those peasants tried to trade for our supplies. At one point, in an arrogant manner, I offered Jake one snip with a scissor for a paper clip. Once we realized that we still needed polka dotted paper, it was very hard for us to get it because no one wanted to trade with us since we were hostile and we wouldn’t trade with them. Eventually we were able to trade it for our pen, a trade made with Jackson, who later was found to be a thief and was jailed.  Our group then was able to construct everything. However, the measurements of our house were off by ¼ inch. So we had to rebuild and just as we finished, another group beat us to raising their hand. It was a buzzer beater. If you ask me I called Mr. Rivers first but whatever, I can buy my own bagels. Anyways, this experiment showed that success and capitalism doesn’t necessarily come from hard work. Jake’s group was only given paper clips and a pen so they obviously had a lot more needed supplies they had to trade for. We were given nearly all of our supplies and finished sooner then they did. So, in conclusion hard work can improve your status, but it’s more about what you start with.