Coin Tossing and Social Classes

This week in sociology, we played a game that replicated the distribution of wealth in America. Each person received three pennies and would bet against others for the coins. Once a person ran out of coins, they were out and the winner would go on to bet against other winners. Throughout the simulation, our teacher would stop and record how many pennies each person had. 

Throughout the game, more and more people went into poverty by losing all their coins, while a couple would gain more and more. At the end, most of the class had zero, excluding my 6 and another students 30 or so. The results mimic the distribution of wealth in America. The majority of wealth in the country is held by a few, while the middle class (like me with my six coins), held a little less, and the majority of America sharing an extremely small amount. While everyone was equal in the beginning, the rules of our society kept people from moving up. In the simulation, once we lost our coins, we were out; there was no way to get back into the game. In society, we don't all start out equal, but the situations we are born into are difficult to overcome. The unwritten rules of society make it so that a poor person is less likely to succeed. This is not because of a lack of will or intelligence, but because of society around them and how it influence influences them. It is hard for a poorer kid to achieve success because he doesn't have the best quality teachers at his school and he can't afford an act tutor. A lack of money prevents him from getting out of the situation he was born in into, much like in the game, the rules kept is from achieving more wealth.

 On top of this, social class stereotypes also keep people down. We read an article with a chapter titled Social Classes and the Self Fulfilling Prophesy. When people are born into social classes they are raised thinking of their limitations and are often discouraged to leave their set social class. Thats why its called the self fulfilling prophesy; because people predict how a person will behave within their social class and the person himself is so constantly surrounded by these messages that he loses hope in rising up and ends up staying where he is expected to stay.