PAX: Breezy, Fruit Loop, Kitty Litter, Chops, Cauliflower, Kirkland, Unitard
PAX (not in Slack): None
FNGs: None
COUNT: 8
Today we ran a simulation of global trade. It’s a well-known fact that the president doesn’t have any real power, and neither does congress, because the Stonecutters are the ones who really call the shots, so what better place to stir the pot of global politics.
We split into 2 sides (aka “countries”). One country was the United States, and the other was an unnamed country with cheap labor.
Each person from the US received a white card with a standard-difficulty exercise (ie merkins, LSF, CDD, WWII, etc), while each person from the other country received a red card with an easy exercise (Good Mornings, Imperial Walkers, Sir Fazios, H2M, etc).
We then did a tabata (1 minute exercise, 30 second rest) where each team went through the exercises in their country. If the people from the US got tired of their exercises and wanted to gain access to the cheap labor (ie, the easy exercises), they had to pay a tariff of 20 burpees, which allowed them to trade places with someone on the other side. Of course, if someone did pay the tariff, the rest of the US felt the effects by having to also do 20 burpees split up amongst their team.
After going through 2 rounds, only 2 Pax decided to trade. One actually paid the tariff, while one (Lite Brite) somehow got around the tariff, saying “rules were meant to be broken”. This unexpected twist somehow added to the realism of the simulation. At the end of the day, we learned that tariffs are indeed a deterrent, there was some temporary inflation (burpees) but it wasn’t too bad, some people find ways to break the rules, and the Stonecutters are above the law and Lite Brite may be the supreme ruler of the illuminati. MIAGD!