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[-] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago

Monopoly's precursor "The Landlord's Game" was invented by Lizzie Magie in the early 1900s to demonstrate why Capitalism needs Georgism to actually have any semblance of fairness, competition, and longevity.

Georgism is roughly the idea that ALL tax should come from land ownership, and that taxes on labour/wages should be abolished.

The game was created to be a "practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences". She based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. She knew that some people could find it hard to understand why this happened and what might be done about it, and she thought that if Georgist ideas were put into the concrete form of a game, they might be easier to demonstrate.

[-] return2ozma@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago

Yes! Here's a video about it: https://youtu.be/B7nFA19Gzrw

[-] hedgehog@ttrpg.network 4 points 22 hours ago

My first thought was that ending the taxes at land ownership was shortsighted - all capital should be taxed - but then I looked up Georgism on Wikipedia and saw that that was basically already in scope (mostly by “including title of ownership for natural resources and other contrived privileges (e.g., intellectual property)”).

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Personally I think the landlords would just increase the rent while saying their interests are literally the only ones that need protection from the state because they generate all the revenue but can't blame them for trying.

Generally speaking landlords charge as much in rent as the market will bear. If they could get away with charging more they would already be doing so.

Right, and when tenants aren't paying taxes?

Rents will presumably rise accordingly, and then be captured in the form of a tax that is both very difficult to evade and no longer harms economic efficiency

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 10 hours ago

I think that's a rather hopeful view of the situation, but, on the other hand, I guess it would also help real estate bubbles from forming so there's that at least.

[-] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 1 points 13 hours ago

Right, and when tenants aren't paying taxes?

Then tenants will keep more money, in any case where there's any competition in housing.

And in any case where there's no competition in the housing supply, tenants will still be unharmed because they're already paying the maximum amount that landlords can get away with.

It's risk free for tenants.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

Counterintuitively, a LVT wouldn't distort prices because the supply of land is fixed.

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Monopoly isn't a bad game per se, but it is a boring game.

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago

A boring game IS a bad game tho and Monopoly is the worst

[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago

Depending on how strict you are with the rules, it can be pretty a fairly quick game. It's not super quick, but it's no Axis and Allies or Risk.

[-] my_hat_stinks@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

The fact it's a long game isn't an issue, the problem is that it's long and bad. A winner is usually determined pretty early on but then there's still half an hour of random rolls as everyone slowly loses their money. That's why house rules are mostly adding safety nets, the game's already over and it's just not fun running around a board watching your numbers go down. Since house rules don't change the core gameplay they don't fix the game and just make it drag even longer.

There's some very good long games and some very good short games, how long a game is doesn't determine how good it is.

[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 1 points 13 hours ago

I'll have to respectfully disagree, while it's not the best game, I can't say it's that bad. The whole game shouldn't take more than 45 minutes unless you're going easy on someone (like kids but monopoly isn't really a friendly smiley game).

I guess it's really up to what type of games you like to play.

[-] sundray@lemmus.org 58 points 2 days ago

Whenever anyone suggests playing Monopoly I always insist on following the rules as written. (Auctions, no money on Free Parking, building evenly across properties, when there's no more houses left in the bank no one can build houses, etc.) The game goes a little faster that way... because everyone eventually agrees to quit and play something else.

[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

If you play by the rules the game isn't that long, either whoever owns orange or who gets lucky at the beginning just wins the game.

[-] RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 days ago

When I was a kid the family rule was that the game is only over once there's a "real" winner, meaning all the others gone bankrupt. Always great for the first loser and easy 3-4 hour games. I just liked playing the bank and sorting bills.

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 82 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Monopoly started out to show that capitalism is based on luck and opportunity, and that the end result is one person owning everything.

The whole process is miserable and even when you win you have to sit thru a prolonged ending where you slowly drain every last resource from you friends and family.

It's not a bad game, they just overestimated how well Americans can pick up irony.

Originally called "The Landlord's Game" Parker Brothers changed it to something less obviously terrible in the run up to the great depression.

I don't know if Far Side is really that deep but:

The only way to win is to not play

Is literally the point the game tries to beat over family's heads for hours at a time.

[-] unmagical@lemmy.ml 33 points 2 days ago

In an ironic twist of complete capitalist predictability, the game we know today was also stolen from the original developer.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Not quite. Parker Brothers had always intended it to have a pro-capitalist message. The woman (and of course it was a woman who got fucked over) who invented The Landlord's Game essentially got duped.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-origins

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 15 points 2 days ago

Far Side? Here I thought that was from War Games.

[-] AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 day ago

It definitely is. As an avid fan of The Far Side, I can’t come up with any connection between it and that quote.

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 days ago

Originally called "The Landlord's Game" Parker Brothers changed it to something less obviously terrible in the run up to the great depression.

Goes to show you how indoctrinated and manipulated we all are when we think that the idea of a monopoly is more acceptable than a landlord.

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And now the robot is a revolutionary communist, great job guys.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Hahaha ok now let's teach it Risk

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[-] IntheTreetop@lemm.ee 27 points 2 days ago

I will forever shout it from the rooftops. Monopoly is a 30 minute game, regardless of how many players you have. If you play by the actual rules, and none of the house rules you've made up for yourself, it's really quick and really fun. No families need to be shattered over the game. No friendships lost. Just play by the actual rules!

[-] Rusty@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 days ago

Have you tried to play literally any other board game?

[-] Dalvoron@lemm.ee 13 points 2 days ago

Monopoly has one great rule (or lack of specificity), that it doesn't put any restricting on when you are able to trade (doesn't even say it has to be your turn!). This creates a great ten minutes or so when most of the properties are bought and people are making interesting deals with each other.

Everything else in the game is bad because there are very few interesting decisions to make. The dice tell you where you go and the space you land on tells you what to do. Strictly you "decide" whether or not to buy an available property if you land on it, but it's virtually always a good idea. In the rare auction case you can decide your bid. You can decide which order you mortgage off your properties if you are out of money. I think one of the chance/CC cards has a choice on it? Even buying houses is kind of dull since you have to build them evenly across the block.

[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

It's a critique of capitalism, there not being many choices and alway accruing capital that's limited in supply is the exact point of the game.

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[-] Hazzard@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

Exactly, play by the original rules, and play aggressive as all hell. You don't need almost any property, it's just fine to mortgage everything but your main set, the goal is to get one very developed set ASAP.

Not only is this a pretty effective way to win (a conservative player who lands once on a very developed property is basically out of the game), it also makes the game progress much faster, especially if other players are willing to concede before the bitter end. 2 or 3 players like this, and you've actually got a recipe for a decent time.

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[-] lugal@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Wasn't there a chess robot who broke the finger of a kid to win or something?

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 11 points 1 day ago

Iirc the kid had their hand on a piece even though it was the robot's turn, so it was really just an anti-cheat feature if you think about it.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 11 points 2 days ago

I feel like a lot of the major problems from the game, like the house rules or people not wanting to make trades, stems from the fact people not wanting to lose in Monopoly. A loss in Monopoly is a hard loss.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago

It works to the same principles like our economy.

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

It's actually a bit better since you don't pay income tax every time and there's guaranteed income.

[-] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, GO is kinda UBI already, isn't it?

[-] ekZepp@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah, monopolies are the worst... everywhere.

[-] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 12 points 2 days ago

I actually enjoy monopoly. Its not anywhere close to my absolute favorite board game of those Ive played, mostly because I feel like it relies too much on rng and that this makes the strategy less useful, but its at least in like, the top 10 or so

Why? There's literally thousands of better games. Just pick any from the top thousand on BGG.

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this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
1021 points (99.9% liked)

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