Games and Class

After we played the penny game, Monopoly, and watched the "People Like Us" video, I got a better sense of what wealth gives us in the US. Being born into wealth is a huge advantage. After playing the Monopoly game, I realized that it was much easier to win and succeed if you started off with money. I began with only $270, and in the end I finished with around $100, while the other players started with a lot of money and ended with even more. When you have a lot of money, it is easier to take risks and succeed, because if you lose, you still have a lot of money left over. I think that this concept exists in our world, outside of the Monopoly game, as well. When you begin with less money, it is a lot harder to move up in society and make more money. An advantage of having wealth in our society is socializing and networking with other people exactly like themselves. It is all about getting your name out there, and knowing the right people, and people with wealth have a much bigger opportunity to get what they want by knowing everybody that can benefit their name and their lifestyle. Also, the wealthy don't have to worry as much about their financial situation andhaving it all just disappear in one day. They have enough money to take financial risks and not have to worry about losing it all. I think that the only way to limit these privileges would for everybody to begin with the same amount of money when they were born- but that is impossible. Therefore, I don't think that there is any true way to limit the wealth that different people possess in our societies. As much as people claim that we don't have social classes and everybody is equal, everybody isn't. We can't change the privileges people have and the wealth people have, but we cantry to help the less fortunate and share our privileges with them.