Inequalities of wealth are becoming more extreme in the United States. While billionaires double their wealth every 3-5 years, we have by far the highest poverty rate in the industrialized world. No industrialized country has a more skewed distribution of wealth. Students need information about this concentration of wealth -- and the power that accompanies it -- in order to become critical thinkers and aware citizens. A Boston-based group, United for a Fair Economy, has developed a simulation activity to dramatize the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth. I describe here how my college human relations classes respond to the exercise. It can easily be adapted for younger students.

To begin the simulation, I ask 10 students to volunteer to line up at the front of the room, seated in their chairs and facing the rest of the class. I explain that each chair represents 10% of the wealth in the United States and each occupant represents 10% of the population; thus when each chair is occupied by one student, the wealth is evenly distributed. I explain that wealth is what you own: your stereo, the part of your house and car that are paid off, savings like stocks and bonds, vacation homes, any companies you own, your yachts, villas on the Riviera, private jet airplanes, etc. Then I ask students to estimate how much wealth each family would have if the wealth were equally distributed. Students usually guess about $50,000 and are surprised to hear that the answer is $250,000.

I ask them what it would feel like if every family could have a $100,000 home, a $10,000 car paid for and $140,000 in savings. Some make comments like, "It'd be wonderful. I wouldn't have to work two jobs and take out a loan to go to college." But many can't imagine such a society. Others express concern that the incentive to work would be taken away. "It sounds like socialism."

I tell those worried about socialism, that they have nothing to fear. We have nowhere near an equal distribution of wealth in this country. The poorest 20% of the population are in debt, and the next 30% average only $5,000 in wealth (primarily in home equity).