Game of scarcity, standard of living, and making the mud-brick house of your dreams

GET “RICH” IN THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD!

Neolithic Period• From the Stone Age to Bronze Age• 8,700 to 3,500 BCE

People started to plant grain, breed and herd animals, and use agricultural tools in the Middle East

Scarcity: Human wants are greater than the capacity of available resources to satisfy those wants.

Goods and Services…?•Goods: things that you need and want (food, clothing, shelter, cool clothing, tools, really awesome tools, etc…)

•Services: actions that get things done to supply you with food, clothing, shelter, better goods, etc…, like farming, building a house, weaving clothing, teaching a skill or knowledge…

Standard of LivingHow well off people are, measured by the quantity and quality of goods and services that they have.

How does your standard of living compare with that of people who lived in the U.S. 100 years ago?

Consumer Goods: Goods that give you direct satisfaction.

Capital Goods: Human-made goods that are used to produce other goods and services and that do not get used up in the production process.

Investment: The purchase of capital goods that are used to produce goods and services.

Your Goal in the Simulation/Game•Raise your standard of living by acquiring consumer goods (what are consumer goods?)

You want to have: ~ 20 units of wheat ~ 10 woolen garments ~ 1 mud-brick house of your dreams•Note: You do not win the game by capital goods. However, capital goods can help you produce wheat in less time, which will give you the time you need to make woolen garments and build a mud-brick house of your dreams.

Village ClerkRead the

instructions for Year One aloud

Note: no family may own more than 9 hoes, 9 sickles, and 1

irrigation canal during the simulation.

Get Ready…Families!•Greet your family members•Decide on a Family Representative who will exchange wheat for other goods•Decide on a Family Scribe to track progress on the Family Record Sheet•Decide on a Family Banker to track goods•Come up with a Family chant, song, motivating cheer

Get Set…Instructions & Wheat!•Read Part II: Information for the Simulation

•Clerk passes out 30 units of wheat to each family

How much does everything cost?•Your family must have 20 units of wheat each year to survive.•1 woolen garment costs 2 units of wheat (you want 10 woolen garments)•1 mud-brick house of your dreams costs 20 units of wheat (you want 1 mud-brick house of your dreams)•1 hoe costs 3 units of wheat. Each hoe you own increases wheat production by 8 units per year.•1 sickle costs 2 units of wheat. Each sickle you own increases wheat production by 5 units per year.•1 irrigation canal costs 20 units of wheat. It costs only 15 units per family if two families produce it together. A canal system increases wheat production by 20 units per year.

Go! …Year One! Hooray!•Good weather! 30 units of wheat per family!•What will you do with your extra 10 units of wheat?

Year Two and Following Years•At the beginning of the year, Teacher announces how much wheat your family produced that year• Family Rep collects 20 units of wheat (in a normal year) plus any additional units for each capital good—hoe, sickle, and irrigation canal• Family decides what to do with any extra wheat over 20 units•At the end of the year, Family Rep turns in 20 units of wheat to Village Clerk for wheat consumed, and exchange any other units of wheat for capital goods or consumer goods.•When a family has 20 units of wheat, 10 woolen garments, and 1 mud-brick house of their dreams, the entire group should stand.•Note: a drought may occur in any year, and your family will only produce 10 units of wheat, even though you’ll still need 20 units to survive.

Debrief

~ How did producing capital goods lead to an increased standard of living?

~ How could Neolithic farmers increase the overall production of consumer goods (wheat, clothing, house)?

Labor Productivity•…is the amount of goods and services produced per worker in a given time period.

•Did your family size change?•By the end, could your family produce more wheat in a year?•Did wheat produced per person increase?•Why did productivity increase in the game?

Economic Growth…•…is an increase in the output of goods and services per person.

•How did using capital goods affect economic growth?•How does economic growth affect the standard of living?