Game of Trades 10/26

Today in class we played a game. This game was called the Game of Trades and the objective was to, obviously, trade. To win the game you and a group had to collect resources to build needed essentials for your civilization to flourish. Alas, my team did not win and our civilization crumbled like the old Roman Empire and left for absolutely no one to remember. We lost because of a couple reasons, the first reason I believe we lost is because we were dealt a bad hand to begin with. We were dealt wood for our home, 2/3 of our food,and a cover page for our book. We also were dealt a pen and paper clips. The pen only had one use and that was the book so it was practically worthless unless someone needed it to complete their civilization, but at that point we would have already been defeated. The paper clips, were essentially useless but thanks to the superior intellect of our scientists, our civilization figured out a way to make our paper clips able to cut raw materials. The second reason we lost was because of our inability to persuade anyone to trade these materials for essential materials.
This relates to the American Dream because I think the message was the American Dream cannot be achieved by yourself. I think it requires a team, AND a free market to sell and buy goods that are needed for your own success. Without trade, achieving the American Dream would be damn near impossible and that is what I think this activity was meant to teach us. I also feel that this was to expose us to how to accomplish goals in our life, and even if it does not seem like it, we as humans require trading and capitalism to make money and achieve a modern sense of the American Dream. But overall this activity was a very efficient way to grasp the concept of the American dream and learn a sort of bartering system. And in the Game of Trades, you either win, or you die.