On holiday with a group of friends last week, we decided to play a big game of Monopoly to pass the evening. Fantastic, I thought, I used to love Monopoly as a kid � such a wholesome, family-friendly game.
Wrong. It�s brutal. After the misfortune of not landing on a single street during the first three trips round the board, I found myself with no property and had to spend the next three hours watching my funds ebb away slowly as I paid the everybody else increasingly exorbitant rent with my every move. (Actually, I wasn�t completely property-less � I did manage to get hold of one of those brown streets. You know, the ones that yield �1 rent for each visit). It might be a game designed to celebrate the �fun� of capitalism � the chance to buy property, accrue wealth and beat one�s rivals - but, with my unlucky start in life, I found myself with quite the opposite perspective. I was downtrodden and despairing of ever improving my lot, not to mention feeling abused by tycoons who didn�t seem inclined to show much social responsibility as they built their empires and ruthlessly swallowed up the smaller landlords (see, it�s not an entirely irrelevant post�)
So I�ve changed my mind about Monopoly � less a fun childhood game, more a stark reminder that for every big winner there have to be other unlucky losers, and that those losers will struggle to ever become winners after a bad start. I don�t think I�ll be playing again any time soon. Of course, had the Monopoly boot been on the other foot, maybe I�d have a different view.
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