The Voiceless Ones

When I was a grad student in Social Work we played a simulation the professor called The Capitalism Simulation, in which all of the class members were given different amounts of Monopoly money and salaries—except for four, of which I was one. We four had no money and further more we had duck tape across our mouths. Our goal, which was not shared with the rest of the players of the simulation, was to obtain a paltry $20.00. Then and only then could the tape be removed from our mouths and we could speak.

Most of the players of the simulation spent their time around a Monopoly board playing with their money. The exception was, beside us four voiceless ones, the players who were to deal with the four of us who had the tape over our mouths. T heir roles/jobs were as police, welfare workers, food stamp workers, etc. There were many more workers dealing with us than four!

It was extremely difficult for us to get $20.00! We could not answer the questions asked us by the food stamp and welfare workers because we could not speak. Likewise, we could not get jobs because he couldn't respond to interview questions. Every time we approached the Monopoly board where most of the players who had money were, the police blocked us and took us to jail. It was frustrating! As a voiceless one I felt anger, fear, and great frustration!

Finally, in desperation, the four of us voiceless ones literally rushed the Monopoly board, pushed past the police, and fell on our knees with our arms outstretched toward the Monopoly players, some of whom figured out our need and gave up money! With the $20.00 needed we were able to take the tape off our mouths and tell everyone what we had had to go through to be able to speak.

The end result was the Monopoly players all shared their money with us and everyone, including the police and welfare workers, stood around the board playing Monopoly.

That’s when the professor, the Game Overall Director (G.O.D.), called an end to the simulation and we reviewed what had happened. The G.O.D. summed up the experience by praising us four voiceless ones for getting to speak—it seems that in this simulation the voiceless ones seldom get the tape off their mouths. Then he said something like this:

Only a class of social workers would create a society in which there is sharing all of the wealth with everyone so that all can equally play the game.

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That simulation and the feelings it invoked in me has colored my view of capitalism, its players and its voiceless ones, for more than thirty years.

BTW, the earliest Christians created a society in which all of the wealth was shared with everyone long before us social workers (or Karl Marx) came up with the idea. (See Acts 2: 44-47).