Capitalism Vs. Other

Economic Systems

Standard10.3.6 Students analyze the emergence of capitalism as

a dominant economic pattern and the responses to it, including

Utopianism, Social Democracy, Socialism, and Communism.

Warm Up: Name all 5 economic systems

and explain how each of them work.

Standard

10.3.6 - Analyze the emergence of capitalism as a dominant economic pattern and the responses to it, including Utopianism, Social Democracy, Socialism, and Communism.

Objective

Students will be able to assess the reason behind the creation of utopianism, utilitarianism, socialism, and communism as alternatives to capitalism through primary and secondary sources. Students will then use context clues to hypothesize why these new economic systems came to be answers for capitalism and its problems. Lastly, students will then construct a new city as an alternative to capitalism in the form of a travel brochure with the goal of persuading people to join their new settlement.

ActivityYou will work with people at your table. This does not mean wait for someone to finish and copy, this means if you do not understand something, ask your classmates!

Read each reading and answer the questions on a separate sheet of paper. Use your table as a resource! If you do not understand something, ask them before asking the teacher, if you are both stuck, ask Mr. Luyau.

Don’t know a word? Is it a footnote below? If not, go to one of the iMacs and look up the word! Remember, bring your paper up so that you can write down the definition!

After you have read and answer all the questions, discuss with your partner what the reason was that each economic system was created and how it tried to solve the problems of capitalism according to each reading!

Roles!

Reader Leader - This person will read the section out loud (if the group decides) and make sure everyone follows along. This person will also make sure everyone has a chance to talk.

Time keeper – this person will assess what has been done and what still needs to be done in the allotted time. This person also makes sure everyone is on task

Question master – this person is the only one allowed to ask the teacher questions.

Runner – if you need a word looked up, ask this person to run to the iMac to tell you the definition of the word. Make sure they are caught up of what they missed!

Recorder – have 1 person write down all the answers as they are discussed. Once you have finished each section, ask them to read the answer aloud to make sure everyone agrees on the answer. If you have a 6 person group, have 2 recorders.

Read and Follow Along!

Read the questions in the capitalism box.

Follow along as the teacher reads aloud.

Answer the questions individually. When your table finishes, discuss them and be ready to discuss the answers as a class.

What did Adam Smith call marketplace competition, and

why did he believe government should leave the market

alone? 

 Smith called the marketplace competition the invisible hand because he believed the market would set it self up through pricing through competition. He believed that the government should leave the market alone because it was harmful to have minimum wage and labor laws.

What was the main driving force of capitalism according to

Smith and why did Smith believe this to be a good thing?

Adam Smith believed that the main driving force behind capitalism was competition, thus why he did not support monopolies. He believed it was a good thing because it would benefit the people and as long as there was competition, the demand for labor would be there.

What is Adam Smith trying to argue against according to

the excerpt from his book, Wealth of Nations.

Adam smith argues against taxing (duties) other nations imports because it leads to a closed market. People have wants and will do whatever it takes to get those wants, for example, the smuggling of French wine in from Holland. He believes that the people who create the product should see the all the profit rather than a second seller to make even more money due to restrictions.

Pace yourself!

The time listed is how long it should take to finish each section. Be sure you pace yourself!

15 Minutes Utopian Reading

15 Minutes Utilitarianism Reading

20 Minutes Socialism Reading

20 Minutes Communism Reading

Exit Ticket

Explain one of the economic systems in full detail (how it works, who created it) and describe the reason why it was created as an alternative to capitalism.

You may use your notes. You do not need to write down the question.

You have 7 minutes to fully answer the question.

Rubric!1 2 3 4

Student does not discuss how the the economic system is a response to capitalism but explains how it works and its creator.

Students cites textual evidence but does not explain the meaning behind the citation. Student also does explain how the system works and the reason for its creation.

Student cites and explains the reason for the economic system was created and compares the economic system’s workings to capitalism and analyzes how they differ.

Student cites and analyzes multiple economic systems in response to capitalism and can reason the differences between the two through a comparison with capitalism.