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Cut out the cards and place each one in a separate envelope. Distribute one envelope per student or “family” in the classroom or group and ask them to remain silent after they open the envelope. Remind students that the money in the envelope represents their income for an entire year from the sources listed in the notes of the graph.
When the envelopes are distributed, have students line up, silently, by income, around the perimeter of the room, with the lowest incomes on one end of the room and the highest incomes on the other end. Do not use a circle for your line up. Be sure to create the line so that there is a significant amount of physical space between the lowest income and the top income.
Begin with the lowest income. Ask each student or “family” to reveal their household income and make a brief statement as to how they feel about the amount of money that they have for the entire year. Caution students to take the simulation seriously and avoid put-downs of groups or individuals as they announce the content of their envelope. Remind them that the class is a model of actual income distribution in the United States.
After each set of six envelopes are revealed, announce that these students represent one-fifth (20%) of the households in the room, and state the group’s average (mean) income, as shown below. Or, ask students to calculate the mean income in their fifth.
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Fifth
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% of Income
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Average (Mean)
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Lowest
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3.6%
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$9.017
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Second
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8.9%
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$22,166
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Third
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14.8%
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$36,783
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Fourth
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23.0%
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$57,167
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Highest
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49.6%
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$123,333
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Total Money $1,490,800
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$49,693
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After all 30 envelopes are revealed, explain that if all the money were collected and redistributed equally, each household would have 49,693 (and all bars on the graph would be equal). Ask students if they are willing to trade in their money for the mean income. See who is willing to do so! Discuss the implications of these inequities.
© 2002 by Jan M. Goodman
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