People sometimes wonder why a game of Monopoly turns one player into a gloating buffoon and the rest into frustrated bankrupts. The joke is, the original point of the game was not winning or skill or enjoyment - it was to illustrate that our whole economic system is designed to turn a small minority into gloating buffoons and the rest into frustrated bankrupts.
This summary, shown on BBC recently, explains how this all came about.
(I did see the programme, but sort of forgot about it again, so thanks to Dave W and Robin S for reminders).
Sunday, 27 December 2009
The origins of the game Monopoly
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6 comments:
They should make a new version, where you're a bank and you go around buying mortgages instead of houses.
Wonder if the designers mad a killing.
S_L, that is possibly a genius idea. Then the property owners have to pay taxes to the banks for them to lend back to people who want to buy property.
JH, the original designers, no, Parker Bros, yes.
Too complicated, there aren't any property owners in it.
I reckon the 4 corner squares are 4banks, and as you land on other squares (which are smaller banks) you can buy mortgages, private equity loans and things off them. Maybe you have to draw a card to see what you get.
Then when you land on your opponents square you can package up all the stuff you bought and sell it them for a profit.
When you start, there's no money in the bank, the players have it all, but every time you pass go you have to roll a dice and pay lots of bonuses.
Eventually the money runs out then something really bad happens and the person with the most crappy mortgages loses as they keep on passing go and having to pay the bonuses.
Or something like that anyway, I have been thinking about it for a while actually. I should have kept schtum, might have made be rich.
Thanks for the heads up, MW, it was a very interesting watch. Rather funny to find out it was a righteous idea gone horribly bad. :-)
I didn't follow the link so excuse my ignorance, but.....
I heard that it became big in the early 1930s because it seemed like a dig at the big banks that were villified after the 1929 crash and that the moutasched dude on the box was meant to look like JP Morgan himself.
Personally, I think this is the best regional version of the game:
http://www.frank151.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/black-monopoly-495x500.jpg
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