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Anyone who has been paying attention for the last few years hasn't been able to get away from ideas like "Capitalism", "Socialism", "Communism" and the new personal favorite; "Marxism". Pundits on all sides of the political and economic spectrum have not been afraid to toss these terms about freely; however if anyone has actually taken the time to EXPLAIN these systems and exactly why these ideologies are important to have at least a basic understanding of in order to at least determine what is and is not valued when developing personal belief structures. Given the number of columns; YouTube videos; blog postings; TV segments etc devoted to calling persons on the other side of the argument names ranging from ill-informed zealots to idealogical windbags; but still from what I've seen; nobody has taken the time to really explain WHAT each of these labels means and why they are good or bad. I was pondering upon this recently and then the solution hit me. . . .
Monopoly. . . (yes; that Monopoly
)In the interest of full disclosure; my high school marketing teacher used Monopoly to to educate our class about the differences between these economic systems several years ago; however I now find flaws in her methods at the time which were essentially as follows:
Captialism: Play Monopoly without deviation to the standard rules.
Socialism: Players are not allowed to purchase the utility tiles or the railroads.
Communism: Players are not allowed to purchase anything; and pay the banker any rents due for landing on a property.
At the high school level; this is actually a fairly effective teaching process; however it's not quite accurate and has the added benefit of making Socialism "not that bad" (insert indoctrination conspiracy commentary here) because its not that different from capitalism. Well dear reader; nothing could be further from the truth. Furthermore, communism is portrayed for the terrible atrocity it is; but not in it's proper scale. I intend to remedy both of these errors with this post.
Communist Monopoly
The owner of the game issues the playing pieces to the players by whatever criteria they see fit (Wanna be the racecar? TFB, you get the thimble and you like it!). The players then take turns rolling the dice and moving their pieces around the board. There will be no purchasing or trading of properties. However, this doesn't matter because there will be no rent collected (even by the banker) because housing is a basic and essential need which is provided in the communist system. Likewise there will be no payments rendered for traveling on the railroads or paying the utilities. The Chance and Community Chest cards are pulled from the board and the cost to get out of jail is every dollar you have. Finally if you complain about the game being "boring", "unfair", "rigged" or demand to quit; you are shot execution style through the back of the head.
So lets look at what this game essentially is. Roll the dice over and over again until you pass go then collect your $200 each turn. However, the money itself is USELESS for you as the only purpose it serves is to get you out of jail should you end up there; which in and of itself is an interesting choice because which would you rather do; sit in a cell counting your a resource you can do nothing with or part with said worthless resource for "freedom" which consists of mindlessly sleepwalking around a board. Money has no value; life has no purpose. Man's existence is reduced to nil; he's a cog in the machine. The fact that he's "poor" means nothing because he cares not for money because it means nothing to him; however it means EVERYTHING to the banker because they realize the value of having government wealth when dealing with other governments.
Socialist Monopoly
Every player in the game chips in an equal amount of real cash to buy the game and the game is only opened at a neutral site so as to not give any one player an advantage. All players must submit to an IQ test before being allowed to play, the results of which are public knowledge to every other player. The person with the highest IQ is considered the tie-breaker in the event of unresolvable dispute. All matters must be voted upon by the players. Who gets to be the banker? Players hold an election. Wanna stake a claim to the doggie token? Better be ready to start wheeling and dealing to barter influence to get what you want. Every property is sold at auction once landed upon (though theoretically this can be done at the start of the game; the players can hold it to a vote to decide I suppose) and all trades must be approved by a vote of all other players. Fees and rewards paid to/by chance and community chance cards are divided equally among all players; as are fees to get out of jail. Finally, each player pays a percentage of their salary back to the banker (based on their cash and property holdings) each trip past GO! for the upkeep of the railroads, utilities, "free" parking and the jailhouse (naturally the railroads and utilities are nationalized; and not for sale).
If there is any game less fun to play than the communist Monopoly; Socialist Monopoly has nailed it. Imagine how long this game will take to play and the piles of ledger books that will be piling up just a few turns in. Before too long; the net result is the same as the communist Monopoly a bunch of people handing useless paper back and forth; settling into a groove that the system will never let them out of. How exactly is player A going to trade Park Place to Player B (who has Boardwalk) in exchange for New York and Tennessee Ave (to complete player A's orange block) when the whims and desires of every other player at the board have to be met because "It's for the good of the game". In short; you have people who are not involved in the transaction meddling and interfering with the affairs of two parties who are trying to conduct business. The game becomes a completely muddled quagmire that is completely unmanageable and overly complex.
Capitalist Monopoly
Play Monopoly. The owner of the game can set whatever house rules they like (side note, my personal House Rules are pretty damn close to perfect IMHO; but that's another post); anyone who does not want to play by those rules is free to not participate in the market of the Monopoly game. As it is, Monopoly is a pretty damn solid example of free market capitalism. The owner of the game setting house rules (within reason) doesn't necessarily give him/her a decisive advantage over the other players. This is the beauty of capitalism; it's the only TRUE system where the potential exists for an individual entity to; for lack of a better word, WIN. In all other versions of the game; not only does nobody win; at the end of the day, EVERYONE loses. Case in point; get a group of X people together and play Y number of games; I'm willing to bet that the likelihood of unique winners for the number of games is greater than the number of repeat winners (unless there is a Monopoly MASTER of something within the group). There is a clear cut winner and losers and any time there are winners and losers; you have inequality; and everyone being equally impoverished is preferable to those who have the skill; the decision making; and the just plain old fashioned good fortune to achieve greatness being free to do so because "It's not fair".
Those who disapprove of the capitalist system will use my Monopoly example for something like this. Every game of Monopoly ends when someone LITERALLY owns the entire board (as players are eliminated the person who eliminated them takes over their assets). If the eliminated players were to be replaced with new players at the end of a completed game; their "game" will be basically rounding the board paying the winner of the previous game; the only way to have a competitive system is for the banker to eventually put everything back in the box and start over; which leads us to the final variation of the game. . .
Marxist Monopoly
Marxist Monopoly cannot be played fresh; it can only be played after a game of Capitalist Monopoly; as Marx himself has long declared his system only works when built upon the carcass of failed capitalism. The Marxist Monopoly rule will be an organized redistribution of wealth from the person who won the last game to the new players joining the table. Something to the effect of; at the end of each turn; the person with the highest worth in properties and cash reallocates an equal portion of his assets to the person with the lowest worth to make the lowest worth player equal with the 2nd lowest; and so on and so forth until all are of equal net value. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"
Some reading are at least thinking "Wait, that doesn't seem so bad, Marx might be on to something there!" If this describes you, do me a favor and bite your tongue. The problem with Marxism is that it (much like communism and socialism) removes the victory condition. If you are constantly shifting assets and resources amongst the table based on need rather than ability; there is only one way to continue to gain; and that is to grow your need and reduce your ability. Eventually this system means that everyone will be the one who has the greatest amount of ability will be penalized for the sake of those who have the greatest amount of need. Greatness and achievement are penalized; talents and abilities are not gifts from God; but rather curses that are exploited for "the greater good".
So there you have it. The best examples I can offer of the different economic ideologies being slung around by everyone with a keyboard; a camera or a microphone. Is Capitalism perfect? No of course not; there will always be issues of dishonest and unethical firms that complicate the free market; but in my opinion; it's the best option for those who are motivated to keep rolling the dice and collecting 200 every trip around the board. In other words; capitalism is the way to go for those that have the ability, the drive, and the ethic to keep playing the game.
That's what The Tank Says. . .
Apparently, The Tank Says...very little. Out of material already my man?
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