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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6696814" data-attributes="member: 4937">Interestingly, Monopoly was originally intended to be an economic teaching tool and a protest against monopolists, rent seekers, and complex arbitrary taxation systems.  So, while Monopoly was not intended to be evil, it certainly was intended to illustrate the evils (real or perceived) of certain sorts of economic activities believed to be harmful to freedom.   Indeed, the whole point of the game as it was conceived was to hammer home the evils of greed.   If it failed in this completely, and you think the lesson of the game is greed is good, then I suggest that it's creator Elizabeth Magie would likely consider her creation evil in at least some small degree.Moreover, gaming is common pastime in my family, but Monopoly is the one game which is banned from family reunions, as it saw too many bitter arguments because of people's cutthroat desire to win and its inherent unfairness and dysfunctionality.So, in short, I think the question, "Is Monopoly evil?", is one I've had to give a great deal more thought than you might expect from an apparently rhetorical question.  If it wasn't already obvious, Monopoly was what was on my mind when I referenced, "We could for the purposes of the game define that we are all playing greedy evil SOBs and therefore our goal in the game is an evil and greedy one."  I still haven't fully made up my mind.Do you think that Monopoly teaches that greed is good?</blockquote>

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