Basically, a group of preschool children began building a city out of Lego. As more people joined the game and lego bricks began to become scarce, the preschoolers developed what amounted to a Lockean conception of property rights, followed by a capitalist market economy. The teachers were unhappy at the way that certain students seemed to be having most of the fun, and when Legotown was accidentally destroyed they imposed new rules – they would distribute the pieces themselves, equally, to everyone. The students did not enjoy the new game as much, and less ended up being built. In the end, a mixed system was developed, where the teachers had more control over the distribution of Lego, although the students were essentially running the game themselves.
Basically, this has resulted in a huge discussion of economics. Does Legotown show that the rise of private property and a market economy is natural is the absence of any coercion from above? Is the whole experiment a vindication of a mixed economy? Does it even make sense to try and draw conclusions about national economies from a game played by a couple of dozen five-year-olds?
Here’s one commentator’s view from the Volokh Conspiracy:
Opinion?I find the original article fascinating. You can see so many ‘high’ economic concepts being grasped by the children, and being totally ignored by the teachers. For example, the Legos were part of a common pool. In order to avoid the ‘tragedy of the commons’ the children intuitively knew how to establish property rights (despite all the brainwashing of the teachers). They set up a market; and assigned value based on aesthetics, and scarcity. Each child was trying to maximize his or her ‘power,’ but in the ‘capitalist’ Lego Town the children were also maximizing their collective effort. The kids built huge buildings and an interdependent system of airports, firehouses and the like.
As I read the story, it seemed that the teachers conditioned the return of the Legos upon unanimous consent among the children on what the rules of distribution would be. Under this artificial constraint each student still sought to maximize his or her share of the Legos, thus resulting in an equal distribution of the Legos. The requirement of equality imposed transaction cost that rendered the building of huge buildings; airports; and firehouses cost-prohibitive. The maximum collective effort was not being achieved by the ’socialist’ Lego Town.
Send for the Marines to protect us from those greedy, out-of-control Marxist dirt farmers (the popular fasci myth).
isn't enough, so it becomes this 
. When those who can change go 
, the people say "Why didn't you 
