How Can an Innocent Board Game Become a Political Statement About Capitalism?

In recent weeks, the Korean TV Series “The Squid Game” made headlines worldwide. The series, in fact, tells a slick story critiquing today’s aggressive capitalism. In it, 456 men and women haunted by debts compete in a deadly game. They can ultimately win a lavish cash prize – or, more likely, lose their life.

In fact, according to Forbes, “Squid Game” became Netflix’s most-watched series ever, reaching 111 million viewers within its first 28 days of release in 2021.

Of course, this is only one of many examples of political commentaries on capitalism in pop culture. Similarly, other notable examples coming from Hollywood are the movies such as: “In Time,” “Parasite,” “Roma,” and “Us.”

However, most people don’t know this: one of the world’s best-known board games was created as a critique of capitalism. That game is “The Monopoly.” Indeed, the concept of the Monopoly game was created in 1903 by Elisabeth J. Phillips.

She designed and patented “The Landlord’s Game” with a single goal in mind. Her goal: to demonstrate how rental income benefits property owners and, in turn, impoverishes tenants. She also hoped that children playing the game would gain some sense of unfairness. Additionally, she hoped they might hold onto this awareness later in their big beautiful life.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, Lizzie Magie patented “The Landlord’s Game” specifically to demonstrate the injustices of accumulating vast wealth through land and rental monopolies under capitalism. According to the UK Intellectual Property Office, Magie actually designed two rule sets for the game: an anti-monopolist version that rewarded all players when wealth was created, and a monopolist version that rewarded crushing one’s opponents — and it was the latter, more ruthless version that players ended up preferring, shaping the game we know today.

Once her patent expired, other publishers copied the game. As a result, it sold under multiple names, including “Monopoly,” “Finance,” and “Auction.”

So, How Does The Game of Monopoly Work?

The rules of the game are highly capitalistic and ruthless indeed. The game is highly competitive: only one player can win.

Meanwhile, the rest slowly slide into bankruptcy. In the game, players roll two dice to move around a square board.

Rolling doubles means an extra move. In addition, they can build and trade plots, and build houses and hotels on their plots. There is also a bank in the game. The rule is simple: the bank can never run out of money. Even if there are no more paper bills, it can still borrow money from you on paper. How familiar does that sound?

If you step on a free plot, you can buy it. If it is your plot, you can build on it, or just chill.

However, once you step onto another player’s plot, you need to pay the rent. The amount depends on the type of building on the plot, house or hotel. In addition, it depends on the quarter of the city, since some quarters on the board are more prestigious and expensive than others.

Running out of money forces some tough choices. You can trade some of your properties with other players, though you can only retrieve half of the price you paid.

Alternatively, you can remortgage your property with the bank. Of course, if you run out of both money and properties, you are out of the game.

You can also land in prison in more than one way. For example, you might draw the “Go Directly to Jail” card from the “Chance” card deck. Alternatively, rolling doubles three times in a row also sends you to jail. You can learn more about the detailed rules of the “Monopoly” game in this video.

How “Monopoly” Showcases The Shadows of Capitalism.

One cannot deny that many of the core diseases of capitalism are faithfully captured in the game. For instance, the bank in the game can never get bankrupt and can make extra paper money whenever necessary. 

It feels incredible that this visionary game was designed years before a key milestone in monetary history. The FED officially unpegged the American dollar from the gold reserve in 1913!

Or, if you have too much luck, you can draw the attention of authorities. Rolling doubles three times in a row, namely, sends you straight to jail.

Moreover, similarly to “The Squid Game,” the “Monopoly” game only seems fair at the first glance. All players start with an empty portfolio of properties and with the same amount of cash in their hands. Starting points like this are a useful reminder of how work will change in the next decade, even for people who begin from similar circumstances. Thinking about how work will change in the next decade can help you prepare for shifts before they fully arrive. 

However, the game is stochastic. If you play according to the rules, your eventual win depends largely on sheer luck. The strategy obviously helps, but eventually, misfortune can catch up with you. Planning around this kind of uncertainty is part of building a realistic future of work outlook for the next decade, one that accounts for setbacks as well as progress. A grounded future of work outlook for the next decade treats both strategy and luck as real factors worth planning around. If you cannot land new plots for several rounds, it becomes hard to keep up. Building future of work resilience strategies early can help you weather stretches like this without losing momentum. Solid future of work resilience strategies treat quiet periods as temporary rather than as a sign that you are falling permanently behind. Landing in prison a few times makes it even harder to outrace the other players and win.

Just as in real life, some badass hacks in the game can allow you to win without breaking the rules. For instance, you can easily monetize the fact that only 32 house pieces are available in the game.

If you then focus on buying out this limited supply, you can corner the market. Instead of building on your plots as intended, you become the house monopolist.

Since other players cannot build on their properties, they need to trade houses with you on the free market. As a result, they pay whatever price you dictate.

What Can You Get Out of the Monopoly Game As a Professional?

In general, the goals of the author of the concept, Elisabeth Phillips, were not met. After all, many board games are extremely competitive elimination games and “Monopoly” is not an exception here.

Do you ever deliberate our sociopolitical system while playing “Monopoly”? Most players don’t. And, the experience of playing the game doesn’t make them turn around from capitalism. 

However, once you learn the story behind “Monopoly,” playing it again becomes an interesting exercise. This time, look deeper into its rules.

How does it make you feel about capitalism as a system? How do you feel about pulling other players towards bankruptcy? Can you come up with any new hacks for how to win the game regardless of luck? How do you feel about capitalism right now? Is it a system for the lucky? Or perhaps, it is a system for the clever?