Ryan Ryersen 11-22-16

Did your group achieve SUCCESS today? How do you know?

Our group did not reach success to the extent of certain other groups but we were definitely a close second which isn’t that bad considering we, group 4, was destined to come in last. While we were able to create food, shelter and minerals rather easily we had a hard time with the education. The other group was able to get all of their materials from and finish first and ended up winning. I know I didn't achieve true success because our group did not end up winning.

What helped your group to succeed? What held you back?

Some things that helped our group succeed was the sheet of polka dot paper. It was used in many of the resources necessary.  We made many multiple minerals in hopes that a finished product might sell at a higher price however we quickly learned that mineral was the least valuable commodity because everybody had one. Some things that held us back was our original set up, lack of preparation or organization throughout the group and lack of foresight of valuable and worthless commodities.

What does our experiment reveal about success in capitalism/the American Dream (e.g. hard work = improved status)? This experiment reveals that while capitalism rewards those who work hard and make smart choices it also leaves others as failures, regardless of any advantages that certain groups. Mr. Rivers said that group 1 the winning group, statistically, had the best chances while my group, group 4, statistically, had the lowest chances of winning so to do as well as we did is rather impressive. This is similar to how certain people are born with more advantages than others and it is a question of whether or not they can maintain the success. Conversely, some people are born with certain disadvantages it is a question of whether they can overcome those barriers or remain at the bottom. Even though we worked hard we were able to rise as social status but not able to obtain the ultimate success so in some, but I do not blame capitalism, because our group could have still worked harder and smarter to obtain success.