“Labor upon Mother Earth produces wages,” she wrote on her original board. If you want any more proof that Magie invented Monopoly as a clever bit of left-wing propaganda, consider the original text of what has become the “Go” space. People are still playing Monopoly more than 100 years later. “It might well have been called the ‘Game of Life,'” she continued, “as it contains all the elements of success and failure in the real world, and the object is the same as the human race in general seems to have, i.e., the accumulation of wealth.” Magie’s clear implication is that the capitalist insistence on wealth being the only measure of value is unacceptable.Īt the same time, she sure did make the struggle for financial dominance look fun. “It’s a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences,” Magie remarked. In fact, it’s purposely designed to be incredibly unfair and frustrating-much like capitalism itself, according to Magie. Yes, you read that right: Monopoly isn’t a celebration of American entrepreneurialism. Her deliberate goal was to highlight the evils of capitalism. The truth is that a left-wing feminist named Lizzie Magie invented the game in 1903 under the title The Landlord’s Game. In fact, by that point, Monopoly had been entertaining players for three decades. Here’s the company line (and we mean that literally Hasbro, which now owns the rights to the game, prints this story on the first page of the rulebook): Monopoly was born when Charles Darrow presented the game, fully formed, to Parker Brothers executives in 1934. Before we get into the rules, it’s helpful to understand that… The man who invented Monopoly did not invent Monopoly. We decided to look a little more closely at the history of Monopoly, and along the way, we discovered that we’ve been playing the game incorrectly-and chances are, you have, too. Monopoly is the worst the game never ends, no one knows the (actual) rules, no pathway to victory without cheating & scandal … /oanJvcPUbc That’s partly due to the inevitable arguments about the rules. While most households have at least one version of the ubiquitous board game, we’ll be the first to admit that Monopoly isn’t very fun (at least, not if you’re losing).Īccording to the instruction booklet, an average Monopoly game takes from one to four hours, but we can remember some games dragging on for days.

Monopoly rule changes