Lizzie Magie was a woman ahead of her time. She was a feminist and a socialist. In fact, she was an anti-monopolist at a time when the Robber Barons reigned. She wrote poetry. She also designed games. In 1904, she came up with a game she called “The Landlord’s Game”. Lizzie was a Georgist (named after the economic philosopher Henry George). These were radicals who believed the fruits of property should be shared by all. They proposed a single tax on property to be used to redistribute wealth. There was a sizably unequal distribution of wealth back then. (Thank God we solved that injustice, right?) Her game would show how rents enriched landlords and impoverished the renters. The game was revolutionary by having no ending space. It had a circuit. It was also the first game to allow the player to own spaces. The spaces had names like Mother Earth, Lonely Lane, Beggarman’s Court, Rickety Row, and Slambang Trolley. It had railroads. Some of the spaces were named after streets in Chicago. She tried to sell it to Parker Brothers, but they thought it was too political. The game did catch on by word of mouth and it must have thrilled Lizzie to know that it was used in class by some college professors. Students and others made homemade versions of the game and it was called “Monopoly”. Over the years, the four railroads were established, Chance and Community spaces were added, and properties were grouped by symbols. Ruth Hoskins changed the street names to those of Atlantic City. She restored the buying of properties for fixed prices rather than through auctions. In the 1930’s, Charles Darrow started making homemade copies of his version of the game. He created the property cards and wooden houses and hotels. His game had the black railroad symbols, a car for Free Parking, the red arrow for Go, a faucet for Water Works, a light bulb for Electric Company. On March 7, 1933 he trademarked the game as Monopoly. He arranged to have it sold at a Philadelphia department store. He contacted Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Both turned him down. Parker Brothers called it “too complicated”. However, after seeing the Christmas sales in Philadelphia and at F.A.O. Schwartz’s in NYC, the company changed its mind. It bought Darrow’s game and started selling it on Feb. 6, 1935. They changed the game pieces to die-cast iron tokens. The originals were the battleship, cannon, iron, shoe, top hat, and thimble. One year later, Rich Uncle Pennybags was added. The company quickly developed the myth that Darrow had invented the game from scratch. It bought out the other patents like Magie’s. She was paid just $500. (Parker Brothers paid the owner of a similar “The Fascinating Game of Finance” $10,000.) Ironically, Lizzie probably thought the money was not as important as the boon of Georgist beliefs getting into American homes. She lived until 1948 so I am sure she was disappointed to find that it had the opposite effect to what she had intended. She must have shed many tears as landlords gloated about their monopolies and players laughed at those that went bankrupt. The rich get richer in the game and the poor get poorer. Not what she intended.
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