dexer-von-dexer:

smitethepatriarchy:

insecureghosts:

blackcollarcitizen:

hestmord:

astrophobe:

aresnakesreal:

i hate monopoly it is like some old white guy was sitting around and then thought to himself, what if we could make capitalism fun? well you tried and you failed dipshit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_board_game_Monopoly it was actually created by a Georgist to illustrate the principle that rent makes landlords richer and tenants poorer. She designed it to be incredibly not fun, to show that if you don’t own property you experience an inevitable foreseeable slow dwindling of your resources until you eventually go bankrupt. She figured that through Monopoly people would be so bored and frustrated that they would understand how terrible the system of rent is

Then Parker Brothers patented it, mass-produced it, people bought it because people have terrible taste in games, and the original creator experienced an inevitable foreseeable slow dwindling of her resources until she died impoverished and obscure

society is a horrific parody of itself

No wonder this game makes me aggressive

Her name was Elizabeth Magie and her game was stolen by Charles Darrow.

Darrow went bankrupt after the 1929 Stock Market Crash, so when he saw his neighbors playing the game, he copied down the instructions, and published his own version of the game.

Then he sold it to the Parker Brothers who popularized the game. Darrow became a millionare within the year. Despite this, Hasboro currently lists him as the sole creator on their website.

Magie was amazing, and not just for her game. She liked to mock societal standards of the time through theater and even made national headlines mocking the institution of marriage. She supported herself until her mid 40s, proving that marriage was not the only option for women, before tying the knot herself.

Elizabeth Magie is attributed with this, “Girls have minds, desires, hopes, and ambitons.” Dont forget her name.

This is the saddest and most representative of the United States thing ever.

Magie actually had a second set of rules for a more fair game to show how the system could be improved. The game was meant to be unfair to illustrate the unfairness of runaway capitalism at first, and then switch to a new set of rules, which provide a much more even playing field (and a much more fun game). Darrow scrapped this second ruleset when he stole it, eliminating the teaching purpose and also all the fun. Here’s the original rules, with the second ruleset included