Hannah Newbold - 11/22

Hannah Newbold
Mr. Rivers
American Literature CP 11
November 22, 2016


                    High School Capitalism


Instructions: Compose a 300-400 word blog post that answers the questions below. PLEASE include your name in the title of your blog post.

Did your group achieve SUCCESS today? How do you know?
What helped your group to succeed? What held you back?
What does our experiment reveal about success in capitalism/the American Dream (e.g. hard work = improved status)?


    During class today we received a survival assignment. A survival of the fittest society. Who ever could construct a society quickest with housing, education, food, etc. Success was achieved in my eyes because my table, despite having initial arguments on how to run things and set up our society we overcame the dispositions and eventually got our heads straight and constructed an actual plan. One person was taking the “leadership” role right away likely is what held us back. Instead of us all sitting down and discussing the best course of action, one person made all the decisions without consulting with anyone else or for instance even listening to what other in the group and I had to say. I believe this is why we have democracy today, and why to a certain degree it works better than any other form of government. Having the group sit down and plan out who is okay to trade with and who isn't okay to trade with was a big aspect. The success of my group was there, although we didn’t win the fastest we were on our way to attaining the success. I don’t think that it is hard work that is what came down to status, in the end it really was who had the most. The ones who had the most in the shortest amount of time were the ones that WON.


    Other groups, like one group was very rowdy and obnoxious which I honestly think resembled the United States - they had the loudest mouths, the most “nationalistic” point of view and compared to other societies around it they had more resources than everyone else and didn't really need to make due about anything. The trade standpoint was also very interesting. It was kind of strange to see how groups interacted between trade. Most groups wanted to trade with the group that was most successful, even though we all realized how isolated they made themselves from trading with most groups all the other groups still wanted to engage with them anyways. I thought it was bizarre how hesitant everyone was to trade, no one trusted each other and I thought that that was also a weird concept. Everyone who was generally very civilized quickly became guarded and anxious. Capitalism similarly reacts the same, as soon as money or trade is involved everyone becomes something .. different. In other words the fight for higher status becomes like every man for himself - it is the survival of the fittest. The United States did that when we bought Alaska from Russia. Trade was made by the two nations and we even fought as allies in WW1 BUT when it comes down to status the United states needs the higher status and in many instances most americans associated Russians as being an enemy. It is a vast comparison but in my mind that's what I compared our group activity to today.