Sunday, February 01, 2009

Zion

Six players. $1.20 in prize money, given out in 10 rounds of 12 cents each. (We're trying to make a point here, not make the kids rich.)

Each player has a card with two choices on the two sides: share the 12 cents, or take it all. Players make their choice, then simultaneously reveal their cards. 10 rounds are played, as previously mentioned.

If everyone chooses "share," the money is divided evenly between them. If 1-3 people choose "take it all," the money is divided evenly between them. If more than three choose "take it all," they simply lose the pot. (We could have been even more mean and said if more than one person chose "take it all," then they lost the pot.)

If everyone had chosen to "share," they each would have ended up with 20 cents. As it stood, at the end of the game, the winner had 16 cents, and it went down from there. (The winner was the only one to choose "take it all" on the first round, so he took 12 cents from that. The remain nine rounds, he earned his remaining four cents.)

Our goal was to illustrate the benefits of a "Zion" community. Moses 7:18: "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them."

It's really true. If you could get everyone to "live in righteousness," then you really wouldn't have any poor people (materially OR spiritually).

2 comments:

Xirax said...

Didn't you demonstrate Nash's equilibrium?

The Writer said...

Essentially. :D

But in this case, it'd probably be called "The Devil's Equilibrium."