I blame the Monopoly board game

[Duer 157099]

Just think about how many generations of American kids have grown up playing Monopoly and learning that grabbing all of the wealth is the end game, and that this is how things just are in the real world.

They grow up to be the CEOs and they make the same moves in the real world that they did with the board game, and they just think that's the way it all is supposed to work.

It's a kind of brainwashing that has been going on for at least half a century or so, no wonder we are where we are.

[bbinacan]

1. Oh good grief

I played the game and I'm sure not a 1% er.

Come to think of it, I don't know what % er I am.

[dems_rightnow]

2. And Hangman is responsible for the death penalty.

Honest.

[TheWraith]

3. I do hope that you're intentionally being absurd.

[Speck Tater]

4. And Chess too. Sacrificing all those pawns to topple the enemy king.

Those kids are grown up and running the Pentagon and the CIA; always looking for more enemy kings to topple.

[Nye Bevan]

5. LOL. Cute deadpan humor (nt)

[PeaceNikki]

6. lol

[elleng]

7. But prob is you're forgetting

'Go to Jail,' in Board Game and prior to end of real anti-trust enforcement. Its ALWAYS been recognized as 'anti-social' to accumulate too much, and now We The People have to force govs. back into enforcement.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. I disliked the game as a child.

It really seemed to bring out unpleasant traits in my siblings, and I did not enjoy playing it.

Loved Scrabble tho.

[styersc]

9. Actually I have used the game Monopoly as a great analogy to

explain to conservative and moderate friends the arguments of the "Occupy" movement.

If you play Monopoly long enough, eventually one, single player has everything worth a damn and with every roll drins the rest thhat quickly decline.

THing is, if you play for a long time, it is fun for no one, not even the monopolist because there is no more competition left. Once a small percentage of players has complete control, nothing can close the gap. It really is a parasitic system. The game demonstrates that.

[Puregonzo1188]

15. Which was actually the point of the game. It was created by a Georgist.

[Whisp]

10. Wall Street the movie - greed is good.

[Codeine]

11. I killed six of my neighborhood friends after playing too much Operation.

Butterfingers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. You do realize

It was social commentary. Research it's history.

[Kber]

13. So funny...

as I type an unfinished game of monopoly sits on my dining room table in front of me.

It is truly the "Lord of the Flies" of board games.

[Puregonzo1188]

14. Actually, the Monopoly game was created by a Georgist to illustrate Georgist economics. So no.

[AngkorWot]

16. I blame Candyland.

People think the real world is some candy filled utopia where you can get ahead in life just by drawing cards and jumping squares. They never realize that Queen Frostine represents the corrupt oligarchical banking system, or that Lord Licorice is the Joos.

[Number23]

20. Chutes and Ladders. Now that's just pure evil right there.

[jwirr]

17. Some years ago there was an anti-monopoly game created and

Monopoly sued and it was taken off the market. I wish I had gotten it when it came out.

[Sisaruus]

18. I have one! Bought it back in the early or mid 70s.

[jwirr]

27. I envy you. That is a real collectors item.

[Firebrand Gary]

19. Hungry, hungry hippo's made me fat.

[eridani]

21. Monopoly is a great educational tool. What happens when someone gets all the money--

--and wins? The game immediately stops, of course. If you want to keep playing, you have to take the winner's money and divide it equally among the players again. In the real world, no one ever gets all the money, nor is there ever perfect equality, but moves toward monopoly slow the system down, and moves toward equality speed it up.

[LWolf]

22. Actually, a speaker at the occupation rally closest to me yesterday

used the game to describe our current situation. He said the game was modeled on the Guilded Age I. That after a few rounds on the board, everything is owned. One person dominates and is having a great time. The rest can't get around the board anymore without borrowing, and are not having a good time. To keep them from folding, the dominator keeps slipping the rest a little cash here and there...and keeping track of what's owed. Sometimes foreclosing to collect. He's having a good time and doesn't want the game to end; he wants them to keep traveling round and round, landing on his railroads and hotels and paying up. The rest of the players are playing a game of eroding assets and growing debt.

This speaker said the game was designed to highlight what happens with unregulated capitalism. I don't know about that; I don't remember learning that when I played as a kid. We just set a time limit and totaled our assets to see who one after time was up.

I do know that we are living Guilded Age II, and I don't like it.

[Puregonzo1188]

26. Yes, they designed of the game was not a free marketer by any stretch of the imagination and made

the game in order to illustrate a political point.

[Enrique]

23. I blame Which Witch

[Motown_Johnny]

24. and Candy Land for the increase in obesity and diabetes

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Sort of like how men are only turned on by naked women b/c porn 'programs' them to be.

Amazing, how that works.

[Matariki]

28. Operation caused me a malpractice suit

:P

[treestar]

29. It was based on an earlier "Landlord Game"

designed to show the opposite, how all of the property ended up in one person's hands.

Monopoly does the same - shows you how capitalism allows a few to get all the wealth.

It came out during the Depression if I recall correctly - so people enjoyed it since they were handling money, if only play.