Monopoly, the Eternally Popular Game

The hugely popular game, Monopoly, was invented in 1903 by Elizabeth Magie who was not a fan of capitalism, but left-wing in her views!

“The problems of the new century were so vast, the income inequalities so massive and the monopolists so mighty that it seemed impossible that an unknown woman… stood a chance at easing society’s ills with something as trivial as a board game. But she had to try.”

In a political magazine, she described her game and how it reflected life:

“It is a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.”

Surprisingly, she came up two sets of rules for the game:

“An anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents.”

I loved Monopoly as a kid. So too does my 8 yo daughter. As does almost every one of her friends. As a kid, it’s the closest thing to dealing with money: buying, selling, collecting rent, paying taxes, building houses and even hotels. Hell, the game even has a Jail you could get thrown into. What’s not to love?

When I was playing with her one time, my daughter had built houses and hotels all around the board. As the rent I had to pay her visibly started to drain my money, there was a very unholy glee on her face. Before long, I was mortgaging my properties to get cash… at half-price. Seeing the state I was reduced to, she was on the floor rolling in unabashed happiness. Literally. Inevitably, I went bankrupt. But she was having too much fun: she told me to borrow money from the bank so the cycle could repeat itself! Another time we were playing, she declared, “The game won’t stop until I have bankrupted you”.

What on earth was Magie thinking, imagining her game would teach people about the evils of monopoly? Or perhaps it was because she didn’t have kids that she didn’t know that kids only play to win, to “create monopolies and crush opponents”.