Equal Opportunity Game is now over 3 years old and ...
... and I have only these recorded answers below ... I also have the ones mentioned in the text, which most often favor outcome shown on the graphics in the oldest post below on this page.
Obviously, I have not attracted much attention to this address. If you find this little problem interesting, please, direct some of your friends here.
Below are the comments (except of the spam) which came in the 30 months or so since this address was set up. I also ask people to send a comment to ladreview@gmail.com if they prefer that for some reason. That address is only for the "vote" on this "game".
And today I also add a new summary of the game.
The Game:
We get 20 thousand ten-cent coins (only $2000 in the game) and collect a group of thousand people who want to play. Each person gets twenty coins.
---
Now the game starts. It has very simple rules: the players meet person to person, each pair puts all their money together and divide them in any equal opportunity way, for example by using dice, playing cards, small games, or just any guessing-game. Anything goes, as far as it does not favour the stronger, the weaker, the more beautiful or those with social problems: simply equal opportunity, indeed just. The only thing which is not recommended is to agree that "just" is fifty-fifty – then nobody can gain in the game.
After a while: we look at the "wealth distribution". How many people have zero to four coins,
how many have 5 to 9 coins, and so on, up to 20 to 24, .... 30 to 34, etc.
What will the distribution be? Other people have answered before you, here are some suggestions:
(A) On average people still have 20 coins each, some a little bit less, some a little bit more.
(B) Any reasonable amount is roughly equally probable
(C) most will become "poor", there is some middle class, and few rich
These three most often given answers are summarized in the sketch
(drawn as usual in newspapers)
Which is your answer? (A) (B) or (C) - or another suggestion?
Please use "Comments" or mail to ladreview@gmail.com to tell us about your guess
The author said...
Obviously, I have not attracted much attention to this address. If you find this little problem interesting, please, direct some of your friends here.
Below are the comments (except of the spam) which came in the 30 months or so since this address was set up. I also ask people to send a comment to ladreview@gmail.com if they prefer that for some reason. That address is only for the "vote" on this "game".
And today I also add a new summary of the game.
The Game:
We get 20 thousand ten-cent coins (only $2000 in the game) and collect a group of thousand people who want to play. Each person gets twenty coins.
---
Now the game starts. It has very simple rules: the players meet person to person, each pair puts all their money together and divide them in any equal opportunity way, for example by using dice, playing cards, small games, or just any guessing-game. Anything goes, as far as it does not favour the stronger, the weaker, the more beautiful or those with social problems: simply equal opportunity, indeed just. The only thing which is not recommended is to agree that "just" is fifty-fifty – then nobody can gain in the game.
After a while: we look at the "wealth distribution". How many people have zero to four coins,
how many have 5 to 9 coins, and so on, up to 20 to 24, .... 30 to 34, etc.
What will the distribution be? Other people have answered before you, here are some suggestions:
(A) On average people still have 20 coins each, some a little bit less, some a little bit more.
(B) Any reasonable amount is roughly equally probable
(C) most will become "poor", there is some middle class, and few rich
These three most often given answers are summarized in the sketch
(drawn as usual in newspapers)
Which is your answer? (A) (B) or (C) - or another suggestion?
Please use "Comments" or mail to ladreview@gmail.com to tell us about your guess
The author said...Labels: economics science physics game
posted by Ladislav Kocbach at 2:17 AM
0 comments
An answer came to ladreview@gmail.com
from Simone:
-----
In your game, I also would expect a Gaussian distribution as long as people meet randomly. I reality, I would expect that people that accidently gained some money start to hang out with people that also have a lot of money in order to minimise losses. Those who feel to have most money will probably hide somewhere, so they do not have to participate in the game anymore. Those who feel poor might start a revolution than, which will result in some redistribution of money, and than everything can start again...
-----
Simone (biologist ..., German)
Here is the first ever online answer.
I managed to find it in my mail.
I expect the average mount of the whole will migrate to a greater average amount for a smaller sample. Those that have none, drop from the sample because they are not balanced by those that have it all. The trend over time is for average amount of increasing WEALTH to to be shared by an increasingly smaller group. This is life.
DW
--
Posted by Anonymous to Equal Opportunity Game at 1/05/2006 01:37:20 PM
Another answer came from Anna, particle physicist. Her idea came from seeing a similarity with clustering in galaxies in early Universe astrophysics, or perhaps cosmology. She just thinks that in any such distributions there will be some clusters, it means a bunch of rather rich gamers with many coins left and another group who would have not so many coins.
I hope I have recorded this well enough.
Hei Ladi, I am junbai, I think the answer of your game may is a multinormal distribution. But when the rounds of your game goes to infinitive then it closes to gaussian distribution.
.. well.. i dont think the bar chart reflects the nearest case that might happen coz maybe some little ppl will get rich and the other will get poor and no one will stay in between !!
franko (united kingdom)
(and Franco also added some advertising - or somebody did)
A team of successful entrepreneurs credited for...... SelectWealthSystem......
A new home-based-business marketing system that provides the strategic high ground for internet marketing.
Pro Team Marketing uses an automated marketing system that is currently promoting a cutting-edge young company, entering the early growth stage, that targets the largest consumer base in the United States with their financial educational products.
So we allow it to stay here.