Monopoly: Socialism

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About

Monopoly: Socialism is a parody of the board game Monopoly that was officially sanctioned and released by Hasbro. The game replaces traditional Monopoly specifics with stereotypes of socialism as perceived by socialism's critics. Its release sparked a debate between socialists and socialism's criticism about the accuracy within the game.

History

The Landlord's Game

In 1904 Elizabeth Magie patented the boardgame The Landlord's game, a boardgame that aimed to teach players about Georgism, an economic system that demonstrates how renting land enriches property owners while impoverishing tenants.^[1] According to the New York Times,^[2] the game came with two sets of rules: "an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents. Her dualistic approach was a teaching tool meant to demonstrate that the first set of rules was morally superior."

In 1932, Charles Darrow, who would later be considered the "inventor" of Monopoly played the game at a dinner party. At the end of the night, he had the host write down the rules for him and then set about distributing the game himself under the name Monopoly. Two years later, Parker Brothers bought the game's rights from Darrow, and in 1935, purchased the rights from Magie, securing the game Monopoly for Parker Brothers.^[3]

Monopoly: Socialism

In 2019, Hasbro released an official parody of Monopoly entitled "Socialism." They describe the game:

In the Monopoly Socialism game players move around the board working together to make a better community by managing and contributing to projects such as a no-tip vegan restaurant, an all-winners school, or a museum of co-creation. But nobody said that cooperation is easy! Drawing a Chance card presents the flip side of striving for the perfect utopian society. You'll have issues with your neighbors, your DIY community projects go awry, you're constantly voting to shake things up, and there's always an emergency that requires dipping into the Community Fund! Contribute all 10 of your chips to win the game, unless the Community Fund runs out of money and everyone loses. So much for a socialist utopia.

Reception

On August 16th, 2019, YouTube channel Board Game Museum published the video "How To Play Monopoly Socialism Board Game By Hasbro." Within one week, the post received more than 4,200 views (shown below).

On August 21st, Twitter ^[4] user @nick_kapur tweeted, "I bought a copy of Hasbro's mean-spirited and woefully ill-informed "MONOPOLY: SOCIALISM" board game so you don't have to." The initial tweet received more than 40,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in two days (shown below, left).

Throughout the thread, @nick_kapur criticized the game's rules and ethos, particularly the game's "community fund" (examples below, center and right). He writes, "For example, there is a community fund, and if a player doesn't have enough money to pay for something, the community fund automatically pays the difference. Which seems kinda socialist at first glance. But the community fund is gleefully and deliberately designed to be constantly running out of money. At this point, the only way to fill it back up and keep the game going is for players to donate money to it voluntarily."

On August 22nd, Senator Ted Cruz tweeted^[5] criticism of @nick_kapur's thread. He wrote, "Why to Leftie academics so fear pointing out the manifest failures of socialism?" Within 24 hours, the tweet thread received more than 4,000 likes and 1,300 retweets (shown below).

Several media outlets covered the game, including Fox News, ^[6] CNET,^[7] NBC,^[8] Spinter,^[9] AV Club,^[10] TIME^[11] and more.