Monopoly

much of land’s value comes not from what is built on the plot by the owner but from the communally created value of its surroundings: nearby roads and railways; a thriving economy, a safe neighbourhood; good local schools and hospitals. 

  Monopoly is a board game where players roll two six-sided dice to move around the game- board buying and trading properties. We used to call it a game of business.
The game monopoly  has taught generations of children to buy up property, develop it with hotels, and charge fellow players sky-high rents for the privilege of accidentally landing there.
But it was not named monopoly to start with. The game’s little-known inventor, Elizabeth Magie, would rather call it prosperity. She was an anti-monopolist.
There’s a subtle but very important difference. In her version, when you own a patch, and another player accidentally lands there, all the players add some point. The earliest player to double her income closes the game. Every player wins in such a board game. She has created the concept game to teach that when a patch of land is developed, the benefits should go to all the players as a tax credit. An increase in tax will raise the economy and every citizen would reap the benefits.
She believed that much of land’s value comes not from what is built on the plot by the owner but from the communally created value of its surroundings: nearby roads and railways; a thriving economy, a safe neighbourhood; good local schools and hospitals. And she argued that all the players should benefit from its tax receipts.
This anti- monopolistic game failed utterly till Parker brothers reinvented it as Monopoly as we know it today. Here the winner owns the maximum property, collects maximum rents and game ends when all the other players are bled to death.
This time the game became blindingly popular. The Parker brothers became millionaire. Nobody remembers Elizabeth Magie any more, the lady who dreamt a win-win game of Prosperity for all. The game monopoly is a practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.

   You see, we Sapiens rejoice at the fall of our competitors more than the gain of the humanity as a whole.
# Kate Raworth, Oxford.