Traditionally, the objective of playing the Monopoly is to try and own as many squares as possible and build houses and hotels on them, and ultimately to “screw over” other players by hoping they will land on them and pay up a hefty sum of money. Muahaha.
Lately I’ve been playing Monopoly on my iPhone and have been winning a lot. I think the Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’–the Computer Player) may not be very bright though I've set it to the highest difficulty level. But that is beside the point, the point is: playing this board game again has given me a profound insight into the behaviour of our own society.
When I'm winning in the game, I own most of the squares, have houses & hotels built everywhere. So, what I started noticing is that the AI would struggle to pay rent for the squares it lands on. It would reluctantly mortgage everything it owns to meet the renting commitments. When this happens, I feel sorry for it. I wish I could give away some of my squares so that it would stay ‘alive’, but alas the game wouldn’t let me–as that would be a weird way to play! But heck, the last time I dominated the game I actually sold down the number of houses and hotels I own so the AI can carry on.
Why do I play the game in this funny way? Because I'm seeing a glimpse of our society: Powerful corporations trying to get the edge on the competition by suing other companies that happen to draw some inspiration from them (read: Apple); big Music and Movie Studios, despite making millions of dollars of profit, trying to sue students and single mums who only wish to share and care; or the Big Banks who, despite making billions of dollars every year, raise interest rates at the expense of average home loan owners when the country’s Reserve Bank leaves the Interest Rate on hold.
The greed of some powerful members of our society translates to Income Inequality–an unbalanced spread of wealth. Please take a look at this article by Linette Lopez of the Business Insider. In summary, Income Inequality in a society could mean:[1]
- More children Dropping out of High School
- Higher crime rates
- Less trust in each other in the society
- More mental illness
- More competition and stress
- Less Social Mobility (e.g. Career Opportunities)
If we want to live in a society where everybody thrives, we need to adopt the attitude of how I play the Monopoly, where I want my opponent to stay alive and thrive. Of course this is a strange way to play the game and we would never finish it. But we wouldn't want our real world to end like a Monopoly game. We want our world to never end and everybody in it to stay alive and thrive, wouldn’t you agree?
Footnotes:
[1]. Lopez, Linette, 2011, "This Is How Income Inequality Destroys Societies," Business Insider, Web. 20 Feb. 2012 <http://www.businessinsider.com/the-negative-effects-of-income-inequality-on-society-2011-11?op=1>
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