An Economics professor at Oklahoma Tech said he never failed a single student until one particular year; he failed a big portion of his entire class. The majority of the class had insisted that pure capitalism was a better system as everyone would be ranked purely by their merits and, therefore, every student would receive exactly what they earned. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on capitalism.

All grades would be based solely on the number of points each student earned and there would be a strict grading scale. There would be a total of 100 points to be earned throughout the course, using a grading increments at 90, 80, 70, and 60 points for a grade of A, B, C, D, respectively. Students receiving less than 60 points would receive a failing grade. There would be no exceptions.

The course had some required materials: a textbook, some study guides, and some software required for homework, etc. A student could not learn the subject or do the assignments unless they had the required materials. There was not enough of each required item for every student, so the professor distributed these to the class using a random lottery. Some students received all the materials, others received a few, and some did not receive any. Seats in the classroom on any particular day were also limited, so the professor allocated them in an arbitrary manner as well.

The only currency in this capitalist simulation was the points earned in the class. Therefore, students were not permitted to purchase materials using actual money from outside sources. Students could, however, barter with their class points and trade them for materials, or a classroom seat, tutoring time, etc. Sharing was not permitted as all property was private. Anyone caught violating these rules would be punished by losing points, or failure in the class, depending upon the severity of the infraction.

A few of the students had parents who were alumni and had taken the class in the past. Because of this, they started the class with the number of points that their parents had earned before. About 10% of the class were legacy, so these students started out with anywhere between 70 and 100 points.

Needless to say, the outcome of the experiment was a mix of grades. Some of the students got A’s without ever coming to class. Some worked hard throughout the semester but received poor grades because they did not have the required materials, or could not get a classroom seat on a test day. Some began without a full set of materials, but managed earn points, barter for better materials, and eventually achieved a decent grade. Some had materials but failed the exams because they just didn’t study, or were not smart enough to understand the subject matter. Some of those that had sufficient points for an A gave their excess points to other students. Some chose to break the rules and purchase books at the local bookstore; a few of the perpetrators were caught and punished, others got away with it. A few dropped the class because it was obvious from their situation that there was no way for them to pass.