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0 pointsderefr12y ago0 comments

> I don't understand at all why monopoly is the universal board game that every kid learns. It's a horrible game that drags on for hours.

Well, inasmuch as it does that, it's teaching the correct economic lesson: when you allow for monopolies, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and social mobility (what a game designer would term "avoiding lame-duck scenarios") is nowhere to be found.

I'd say Monopoly is actually great to play with kids... once. Right after they develop naive libertarianism as an ideology. ;)

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philwelch12y ago

Yeah, that was the original point of the game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landlord's_Game

thatswrong012y ago

That might be valid if most modern monopolies weren't the product of government intervention.

mseebach12y ago

In the game this is exemplified by forcing you to progress through life on a preset course and force you to pay rents to the incumbents that you come across on that narrow path.

The dice roll of course represents that life is unpredictable. But I struggle to find the real world analogy where I go bankrupt because I randomly end up in a hotel in Park Avenue.

talmand12y ago

Never mind the fact that you are forced to move every day from a location you likely can easily afford to a new location not knowing whether you can afford it or not. How can you plan for the future when you move from $200 rent to $2000 rent in a single day with no new income?

What strange shenanigans is going on that compels me to move so much? Especially moving into hotels when I previously lived in a house.

For that matter, if a property doesn't have a house nor hotel what am I paying rent for? The street?

Also, why can't I build a house on my property unless I own the two or three properties in the same area?

I also fail to see how one is supposed to learn anything about economics from the game other than just the basics that takes five minutes to explain.

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javert12y ago

Not most, ALL. Even "natural monopolies" like power delivery are not natural, and only actually come about through government intervention.

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