Introduce Marxism with a Short Skit In World History or Economics Class

I have used this short skit successfully in World History (in the study of the industrial revolution), and American Government and Economics. Feel free to copy and use it, and please let me know how the lesson went. The teacher may wish to prepare a short presentation comparing laissez-faire capitalism to Marxism and examine the vocabulary words (below) before doing the skit. The teacher may do the skit alone or have students perform it. Enjoy!

- Mike

Mike Spinrad, San Marin High School, Novato, California

Karl Marx Encounters Capitalist

Scene:  London 1850

Marx:  My backside hurts from boils, probably because I’ve already sat and read in the public library for six hours today. Who’s coming to greet me?

William Pound: It’s me, William Pound.

Marx: Ah yes. Pound, I called you to discuss your ridiculous beliefs about factory owners. Why don’t you understand that every time a factory produces something, workers are exploited?

William Pound: The workers trade their labor for pay. It’s a free exchange where both owner and worker agree, without coercion, to engage in a contract. What could be wrong with that?

Marx: The workers are paid poorly and working conditions are bad. The workers are nothing more than slaves, wage slaves.

William Pound: Working conditions have been improving for years, thanks to recent laws passed by Parliament and the power of unions. Additionally, not all factory owners treat their employees poorly.  Don’t you think a worker has mastery over his own fate and can move, working wherever he pleases?

Marx: I am a determinist. I do not believe in free will. It’s an economic system, not individuals that determine history. As it has been said, the system makes people act the way they do.

William Pound: What nonsense are you saying? An economic system produced the ambition of Napoleon and genius of the Duke of Wellington? People, not systems make choices in their lives and create history.

Marx: You sound like my Jewish grandfather. He thought that people have choices too. I’m glad I was baptized as a young child and that you’re not Jewish.

William Pound: Karl, you’re a vicious anti-Semite as well as the originator of catchy but superficial ideas. Naturally, no one wants to be against workers earning a good living. Few common people care about liberty, however, until it’s gone. Just how do you propose the change to socialism will occur?

Marx: I believe that the capitalist system will destroy itself by producing enough disgruntled workers. These workers will take over and replace capitalism with a socialist paradise. We won’t need liberty in this socialist paradise.

________________________________________________________

Name ______________________

Define the following words and answer the questions:

Liberty

Determinist

Exploited

Anti-Semite

Coercion

_____________________________________________________________

What is more important to you, liberty or equality of outcome? Why?

Do you believe in determinism or free will?  Why?

A Tale of Two Classes: The One Percent and the Occupiers

Despite all the bad press, the one percent is alive and well, buying and building $100 million mega-houses and McMansions in the Silicon Valley area an hour south of San Francisco (see the Bay Citizen link here). The Bay Citizen adds that this manic level of activity in the high end housing market will continue. “These people have essentially infinite money,” exclaims a realtor.

Zynga went public on Friday with a $1 billion stock offering. Facebook is widely expected to file a $10 billion offering early next year.

These stock offerings will create even more multimillionaires in the area. All of this new wealth is from Facebook and the creator of a bunch of inane games--ah, capitalism at its most creative in the United States! I'm sure my life is much better off because of these companies. After all, what wasteful activities would I be doing--playing games with my kids, reading history books, writing, practicing drums, working on lesson planning--if I wasn't reading about the careers and love affairs of my middle-aged high school classmates.

Seriously, I have no criticism of the rich buying stuff. Purchases of goods and services (increase aggregate demand and tax revenues) echo throughout the economy, growing the GDP. The more big purchasers we have, the better. The property taxes paid on these high end properties will also be stupendously large, supporting public services such as police and fire and school districts. A mere five-million dollar shack house in Atherton would create revenues of around $75,000/year in property taxes. You have to be rich just to afford the property taxes on a nice place in California. (Note to people lining up to give me property. Do not give me a mansion. I can't afford the property taxes and would be forced to sell it.)

As the Silicon Valley nouveau riche buy their expensive castles, their nemesis, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement attempted to take over church property (link here). Trinity Church supported the OWS movement with hot drinks and blankets but halted their support when the Occupy movement tried to take over Trinity Church's space, next to a public park.Supporting the mob with hot chocolate may be the Christian thing to do, but letting them use a piece of land worth millions, rent free...well, that is something altogether different.

“O.W.S. protestors call out for social and economic justice; Trinity has been supporting these goals for more than 300 years,” [the Church's rector] Dr. Cooper said in a statement. “We do not, however, believe that erecting a tent city at Duarte Square enhances their mission or ours.”

What? Of course the "occupation" of Duarte Square enhances the "get something for nothing" mission of OWS. It's also a great location, close to Wall Street, the right place to protest against income inequality. However, it seems that even supporters of "social justice" have their limits.

Since OWS members find it increasingly difficult to find a good location to park their sleeping bags, they might consider working against income in equality the old fashioned way--by making money, a lot of it. Unfortunately, working for money takes effort, and they will be increasingly tempted to find ways to usurp the noveau riche's millions instead. In 1932, FDR "pushed through a tax increase on the wealthy that included a hike in the top rate to 63% from 35%." It could happen again. In California, three competing measures to raise taxes will be on the ballot. The California Federation of Teachers' Millionaire's Tax may be the most likely to pass. Additionally, at this writing the OWS movement is planning to disrupt Republican caucuses in Iowa. The OWS movement knows who should be wealthy and who should be blessed with the right to hold political office--certainly not those who receive votes and money from the one percent.

January 30, 2012 Postscript: The West Coast Occupy movement has been thoroughly discredited and now acts as an instrument of violence and anarchy. Even the ultra-leftist San Francisco Chronicle's writes, Occupy Oakland Has Lost Credibility. See the article here. Hopefully OWS will remain focused on inequality.