Empowering Global Citizens

learn about the power of consumers, about how consumers are an important
constituency for organizations that sell consumer goods, and about the ways
in which consumers may significantly influence organizations to use ethical
means of production. Through an examination of OPEC, students are fa—
miliarized with the basics of the demand and supply of petroleum and with
how countries collectively work toward ensuring the stability of petroleum

prices in the global economy.

Activity 7.8.1

Buying Power

The teacher gives each student a certain amount of “money.” Each student is
able to buy products from a classroom store. Each product is produced by a
different company, and each company has a profile card that the students are
not allowed to see. The teacher explains to the students that every time they
spend a dollar on goods from a certain company, that company will be able
to use a portion of that dollar to expand and will thus become bigger and
more powerful. In the first round, there is an equal amount of each product.
Before the second round, the teacher adds one more product for every two
dollars that was spent on that product in the first round. Therefore, the most
popular company will take a larger share of the shelf space. Students are then
given more money to spend in the second round, and the teacher again in-
creases the number of the popular products. For the third round, the teacher
places a card with a company profile in front of each product and gives the
students more money to spend. Some companies’ profiles talk about the fair
wages they pay their workers and the sustainable manufacturing technolo—
gies they use. Other companies’ profiles talk about how they keep costs low
by using cheap labor overseas. In the third round, the students use the com-
pany profiles to make buying decisions, and then the teacher replenishes
the supply of products as before. In the fourth round, however, the teacher
places news articles praising companies for social responsibility or denounc—
ing them for nefarious practices like child labor and sweatshop conditions.
After the students spend their money, the teacher debriefs the class by asking

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