Marxism vs. "The Invisible Hand" - Which Approach was Better?

Hi!

Over the past week in our honors History class, we were learning about the economic approaches of Communism, Capitalism, and Socialism. In order to grasp a better understanding of these approaches, our class conducted an experiment with hershey kiss chocolates. Our teacher showed us the general concept of each of the three economies and asked us which we thought was better or worse for the people. Every approach had some upsides and some downsides, for example, having the rich being taxed and having their money be redistributed to the poor so everyone gets an even amount. To the poor, this was a genius idea. However, the rich saw this idea as unfair and completely outrageous. This is an example of socialism, one of the three total approaches to the economy. This experiment was enjoyable and I thought it was a great way to see what the reactions were of the people who were given more or less chocolates.

Marx's idea of helping the poor was a mix between socialism and communism. He wanted the government to be heavily involved in taxing the rich and redistributing to the poor in a very "Robin Hood" style approach. He believed that this approach was the fairest of them all as there were no people that had certain advantages and everyone was given equal privileges. Smith's idea to helping the poor, however, was the polar opposite idea of Marx's. He believed a very "Hands Off" approach of the government was the best way for the poor to help themselves. With the market self-regulating itself, people could make their own money in the most efficient way possible. However, there were a few downsides to Smith's idea. If you were poor, you were left poor. There was no way to make or sell any profits. Also, it took a while for the economy to reach an "equilibrium" with this concept.

In my opinion, both of these ideas are equally mediocre and I believe that capitalism is the way to go. People are allowed the freedom to keep or bet their own money and none of it is controlled by the state. Overall, capitalism allows the right amount of freedom without government supervision.

The Invisible Hand
Karl Marx Mini Bio