Sometimes, a book or movie tells a story to make a larger point. In the case of a new PBS documentary about the popular board game Monopoly, the movie made a point entirely opposite to its intended argument.
By recounting the strange-yet-true history of the classic game, the film clued viewers into the largely unknown story behind a staple of American pop culture. But in trying to use the documentary to form a broader critique of capitalism, “Ruthless: Monopoly’s Secret History” only drew attention to the vast differences between an economic system and a toy store mainstay for nearly a century.
Anti-Capitalist Roots
Many Americans might not believe it, but Monopoly had its roots in a decidedly anti-capitalist political movement. At the turn of the 20th century, inventor Elizabeth Magie tried to drum up support for the simple tax, an idea propounded by economist Henry George as a way to make property communal.
Magie invented The Landlord’s Game, which, on its face, looks eerily similar to Monopoly. Magie’s original 1904 patent for the game included not just a series of rental properties arrayed around a square game board, but features like railroads, a light and water franchise, a public park, and a “jail” and “go to jail” spaces on the corners of the board — all features of the later game.
But Magie created two sets of rules for her game: A “monopolist” version, in which people competed to acquire the most property, and an “anti-monopolist” version that intends to
