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TSAGHKADZOR, Armenia –– I have come on a whim to the Valley of Flowers, a vast expanse of forestry 40 miles outside Yerevan, Armenia’s capital city. For the past week, 150 high school economics students have stayed at a campsite here, both as reward for academic achievement and as an incentive for further involvement in the shaping of Armenia’s economic landscape.

The students – whose stay is sponsored by Junior Achievement of Armenia, an organization that heads the teaching of economics and civics in public schools – are divided into 13 groups that compete with each other in various activities.

In one day’s time these students have exposed me to the world of economics in a way that no textbook or economist could.

On today’s agenda was the picnic. Each group was given approximately 12,000 drams ($24). With that money the group was required to set a table with food, judged on factors of health, taste, creativity, quality and quantity.

When I arrived at Tsaghkadzor at 3 p.m. the 13 tables already were set on the midsize patch of greenery surrounding the campsite. The tables abounded with drinks, kabobs, salads, cheeses and pastries – all of which quickly reminded me why one cannot maintain a diet in Armenia.

As part of the administration’s jury team I walked from table to table to sample the foods, assess groups’ creativity, and determine their overall score. I immediately discovered that the seemingly supreme layout of one table was quickly overshadowed by the pristine variety of the foods on the next.

The winning table was simply spectacular. This group had gone to the limit with its money. Its members had carved a watermelon to resemble Armenia’s geographic shape and assembled cucumbers and tomatoes to look like large mushrooms. Even the losing teams begrudgingly accepted the outcome as music began to play and the festivities peaked.

Soon cards and backgammon were brought out for play, and, in Armenia’s true cultural flavor, conversations flourished.

Razmik, a short and confident 16-year-old who wore a Chicago Bulls hat, told me in secret, “I hate to say it, but (the winning group’s) table was much better than ours.”

The tone and subject of the talks later became more serious. “What would you do if you were president of Armenia?” I asked Razmik. He chuckled and said, “I wouldn’t do anything. Economics is all about individuals competing with one another. Government is not involved.” I smiled at the simple clarity of that answer.

I made my way to the winning table, where I chatted lightly with a 15-year-old girl named Hamest, which, ironically, means “modest” in Armenian. “We won,” she said. “We are the best.”

I asked her if that was not a bit selfish. “I guess you could call it that,” she said, her face now sour. “But it really isn’t. We didn’t hurt any of the other teams in the process. Our goal was not to harm them, and we did not harm them. From the beginning we were interested in our own product – how we could be better. And we won. But that doesn’t mean the others lost.”

I asked Hamest what the government’s role in economics should be. “Aside from protecting its citizens from harm,” she told me, “absolutely nothing. Look at our table. Do you think (Armenian President) Robert Kocharian could have spent the $25 as we did and set up a table as beautiful as ours?” The obvious answer was no. But why?

“Because he wouldn’t be setting it up for himself,” said a voice from the other side of the table. “Well, he probably would be,” said another joking on a somewhat unrelated topic.

“Was this economics?” I thought to myself. It surely had to be more complex, a little less simplistic.

But it wasn’t. These students had spent what they had to best suit their own needs and desires and in the process, without intervention, had created 13 stunning tables for everyone to see and enjoy.

Economics, I was informed, is best left to those who are affected by it – the people. Their money and life must be earned, managed, and spent by them.

This concept and the camp in which I found it are not at all political. The students come from different social and political backgrounds, and the organization is entirely nonpartisan.

Without thinking ideologically the students had come to the same conclusion: Free-thinking, creative individuals who are free from governmental coercion and free to pursue their own prosperity and happiness will end up bettering themselves and the society around them. This means, as I later figured out – though the students never labeled it – laissez-faire capitalism.

George Bush, John Kerry and the lot of American and world intellectuals have much to learn from these students – students who probably will never own a major corporation or manage an international company but who see the simple key to life’s complex problems.

Hovannisian is a second-year history and philosophy student. E-mail him at ghovannisian@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.