What the Game Monopoly is Really About

There’s no doubt just about everyone has played or at least knows how to play the famous Parker Brother’s board game, Monopoly. But what you may not know is that it was not meant to be a family board game.  Originally it was created to expose the danger of a small group of people controlling everything.  Like my banking analogy the game is won when one person owns everything and everyone else goes broke. That’s why it’s called monopoly.

The game of Monopoly was based on an earlier game called The Landlord’s Game, which was created by Elizabeth Magie and patented in 1904. The PBS show “PBS History Detectives found that Magie designed the game to be a "practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.” 

Magie said that the game has the object of demonstrating how renting enriches property owners and impoverishes tenants.  Magie based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, which is an economic philosophy and ideology that says people own what they create, but that things found in nature, most importantly land, belong equally to all. 

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. Magie also hoped that when played by children the game would provoke their natural suspicion of unfairness, and that they might carry this awareness into adulthood.

Real Estate Mike is host of the syndicated radio show, “Let’s Talk Real Estate with Mike Andrews.” He is a published author, real estate expert, entrepreneur and investment advisor. Follow him on Twitter Twitter.com/RealEstateMikeA.