Interactive game that Econ teachers and students will love (a little far afield of personal finance but as you are all aware, the health of the U.S. economy has serious implications for individuals’ financial health!. It’s called fiscalship.org and it puts your students in charge of managing the U.S. Budget. Here are reviews of the game which was just released this week (we like to stay current here at NGPF!):

• Good summary here at the Wall Street Journal which describes how this simulation is different from others like it:

The game, a joint effort of the Brookings Institution and the Wilson Center, differs from other budget-balancing tools that others have rolled out in recent years. It features greater production quality than others that are essentially fancy spreadsheets, and it also requires users to choose and meet broader policy goals that reflect the demands of running the government.

Users can choose up to three of some 10 such goals, such as cutting taxes, fighting climate change, strengthening the military, reducing inequality and boosting government and private investment. The idea is to reflect the demands of pursuing policy objectives, on either side of the ideological spectrum, that go beyond simply making sure the government is spending no more money than it collects.

• Players choose three goals to focus on (USA Today):

“Rather than simply presenting players with an interactive spreadsheet, Wessel said, the game asks players to choose up to three key goals, such as trimming taxes, reducing inequality or protecting the elderly. Players strive to reach these goals while keeping the debt-to-GDP ratio down to its current level: 75%. Otherwise, a brief introduction warns, in another 25 years, the debt could balloon to “levels never before seen in U.S. history.”

Creating a game to explore the intersection of taxation, debt and spending was a natural thing to do, Wessel said. Economists’ models, in a way, are little more thanwhat-if? simulations that they can tweak to get different results.”

• How students win (from Brookings Institution)”A few people have poked at our definition of fiscal sustainability in The Fiscal Ship. To “win,” a player needs to make spending and tax choices that reduce the debt/GDP ratio in 2041 to 75% from the 126% that’s projected for that year if tax and spending policy remains unchanged. “What’s magic about 75%?” someone asked us on Twitter. Short answer: Nothing. To make the game playable, we had to pick a target somewhat arbitrarily and we chose 75% because that’s where the debt/GDP ratio is today. It struck us as a reasonable target.”

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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