The Dollar Game: Questioning the Ethics of Capitalism and Bargaining

Abstract

In this half-hour class exercise, students who randomly receive index cards with dollar signs on the back of them negotiate with students who randomly receive blank index cards. The exercise raises issues of distributive justice, negotiating ethics, and unfair competitive advantages. The exercise addresses three key issues: (a) the ethics of people who control a scarce resource, (b) the ethics of people who do not control a scarce resource, and (c) the ethics of distributing less income than budgeted.