Having played Monopoly many times in my life, I had not realized that the inventor was a doctrinaire socialist who developed it in order to promote a jaundiced view of free markets. Nonetheless, the game stands as one example of how socialists effectively employ broad cultural narratives to promote their ideas.
Magie …wrote poems, performed in dramatic theater, taught college-level courses in her home, corresponded with Upton Sinclair, and studied economic theory. Her father was close friends with Abraham Lincoln. Both father and daughter were devout followers of the teachings of economist Henry George, whose 1879 treatise Progress and Poverty made the case for a single tax, on land. Like her fellow Georgists, Magie believed that ownership of nature was not possible — the earth was not something that could be owned. Land could, however, be “rented”, thus comprising the single tax. Magie designed The Landlord’s Game to teach and proselytize the principles of Georgism.
There is a short story by Phil Dick (skiffy, of course) about a .gov functionary playing a game with his kids (as one does when evaluating psywar weapons). Ods bodkins! It’s eerily like the premise of Monoply, but the object is to go broke! Quick scan suggests it might be ‘War Games’.
Interesting Dennis.
And why to this day I refuse to work on Magie’s Farm. People who know will know.
Like Kathy Shaidle, I posit that the movie It’s a Wonderful Life is really a 2 hour advertisement for socialism – unbeknownst to a lot of people I’m sure.
I mean, I don’t know too many institutions who’d front up big money for a guy just off the boat named Martini who has dreams of owning a dive bar not to mention a hovel for his family, but that’s just me.
Maybe Ol’ Man Potter had it right all along.
So as usual, the socialist game failed and the capitalist game succeeded?
A lot of these original progressives/socialists gave up on it later in life.
Mentions Upton Sinclair- huge socialist when he wrote The Jungle, years later wrote a new forward saying that while it seemed like a promising idea at the time… socialism is not the way.
l wd have thought the thrill of all that wealth would whet the appetite of a LOT of kids for the real thing.
sparking the entrepreneurial lilt.
but somehow in socialism thats . . . . bad?
Well, based on the way life is working out I’d say Monopoly is what the elites play for entertainment and, so far, they’re doing pretty well at it.
– For those who are not familiar with Henry George, I like to call him a pre-Marxist Marxist.
Nah, the socialists like to claim him but there are too many classical liberals, libertarians, conservatives and others interested in his ideas for that to be true.