From Doughnut Economics
by Kate Raworth:
"[The Monopoly game's] inventor, Elizabeth Magie, was
an outspoken supporter of [land tax proponent] Henry George’s ideas, and
when she first created her game in 1903, she gave it two very different
sets of rules to be played in turn. Under the ‘Prosperity’ set of
rules, every player gained each time someone acquired a new property
(echoing George’s call for a land value tax), and the game was won (by
all) when the player who had started out with the least money had
doubled it. Under the second, ‘Monopolist’ set of rules, players gained
by charging rent to those who were unfortunate enough to land on their
properties--and whoever managed to bankrupt the rest was the sole
winner. The purpose of the dual sets of rules, said Magie, was for
players to experience a ‘practical demonstration of the present system
of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences’ and so
understand how different approaches to property ownership can lead to
vastly different social outcomes. ‘It might well have been called 'The
Game of Life' remarked Magie, ‘as it contains all the elements of
success and failure in the real world.’ But when the games manufacturer,
Parker Brothers, bought the patent for [what was originally called] The
Landlord’s Game from Magie in the 1930s, they relaunched it simply as
Monopoly and provided the eager public with just one set of rules: those
that celebrate the triumph of one over all.”
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