by Douglas Abrams
Today, students passing by the cafeteria from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. were greeted by an interactive art demonstration designed by Steve Lambert, an artist who uses public space as a forum to start conversations about important issues.
The sign was adorned with the sentence “Capitalism works for me!” Throughout the day, students could vote on whether or not capitalism works for them as an economic system. Students could go up to a podium in front of the sign and press either the true or the false button in response to the statement on the sign.
Their votes were shown underneath the sign in a tally counting the amounts of votes for true and for false. The final vote count was 184 true votes and 93 false votes.
Lambert said that he “designed the sign to start a challenging and much needed conversation about capitalism that he felt was not happening in the media or everyday life.”
He said that if he were to vote, he would vote against the idea that capitalism worked in his life, as his family struggled with economic issues.
Sophomore Emmett McCleary said that he voted that capitalism does work for him because “I am a white man, and I live in Newton. So, personally capitalism works for me. But for everyone, I do not think that it works.”
Agreeing with him, senior Alison Burkowitz said that capitalism works for her for a similar reason. “I live in Newton, so, in my life, capitalism has worked.”