The origins of the game, and Lizzie Magie were forgotten.
But by this stage, the Prosperity phase of the game had disappeared, along with the game’s didactic purpose. The game was developed by various people but the invention of Monopoly has commonly been attributed to Charles Darrow who it was that sold the game to Parker Brothers in 1935.
It thus serves to show the benefit of running an economy according to the Land Value Tax principles behind Prosperity rather than the ‘unearned income’ and monopolistic effects of Monopoly. With minimal rule changes, the objective of the game is to then get the poorest player to a level of wealth twice that at which everyone originally started. Inequities grow until enough players elect to switch to Prosperity rules. Players all start with a set amount of money and play the rules of the Landlord’s Game. Her game had two phases: ‘Landlord’s Game’ and ‘Prosperity’. Georgists generally advocate a land value tax as a solution (but see ‘The Land Windfall Tax’ about an alternative). She created the game as a practical way to demonstrate the problem of rents enriching some and impoverishing others.
She was a Georgist, believing that income derived from land (as opposed to one’s own labour, including labour upon that land) should be shared among everyone in society. Yet the game has its origins in ‘The Landlord’s Game’ by Elizabeth Magie, around 1904, who only benefitted to the tune of $500. But in short, the invention of the game is commonly attributed to Charles Darrow, around 1933, who became a millionaire from it. There is an extensive history of the game of Monopoly on Wikipedia. The inequity of the game thus serves as preparation for the inequity of life. I know of no other game that manages this so successfully. The degree of gloating at their own mastery of the game will depend on the person but, at some point, a junior member of the family is sure to end up crying. Someone will have the good fortune to get some orange sites and 2 or 3 stations early on and go on to end up with hotels on the expensive (green and dark blue) sites and win handsomely. On Christmas Day, after the turkey, get the Monopoly set down from the loft and play throughout the afternoon. Here is some festive fun for all the family.
Unlike other writings that just tell the history of the game, this includes a Python program to simulate Monopoly games in order to see the effect of rule changes – on social justice! It may make you think of ‘Go to Jail’, ‘Free Parking’, ‘Community Chest’ and other features of the game in a different light in the future. In which a set of rules for the game of Monopoly are provided that can be played on a modern game board, but with the moralistic Georgist Land Tax values of when the game was first created over 100 years ago.
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