The story of "Monopoly" and American capitalism

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Monopoly is one of the best-selling board games in history.

The game's staying power may in part be because of strong American lore — the idea that anyone, with just a little bit of cash, can rise from rags to riches. Mary Pilon, author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game.
But there's another origin story – a very different one that promotes a very different image of capitalism. (And with two sets of starkly different rules.) That story shows how a critique of capitalism grew from a seed of an idea in a rebellious young woman's mind into a game legendary for its celebration of wealth at all costs.

This episode was made in collaboration with NPR's Throughline. For more about the origin story of Monopoly, listen to their original episode Do Not Pass Go.

This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee, mastered by Natasha Branch, and edited by Jess Jiang.

The Throughline episode was produced by Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei, Lawrence Wu, Laine Kaplan-Levenson, Julie Caine, Victor Yvellez, Anya Steinberg, Yolanda Sangweni, Casey Miner, Cristina Kim, Devin Katayama, and Amiri Tulloch. It was fact-checked by Kevin Volkl and mixed by Josh Newell.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.0	Okay, the name of the game is Monopoly. Do you all know how to play the game?
0:10.0	No, no. What?
0:13.0	I think that we should review the game.
0:15.0	I know the game, don't worry.
0:16.0	I try playing Monopoly with my nephews recently.
0:19.0	Hello, I'm Ali. I'm Zade. I'm Daha.
0:22.0	And they had a lot of questions.
0:24.0	We can steal. What do they mean by mortgage?
0:27.0	I don't know, you can't steal.
0:28.0	How much is the rent?
0:29.0	Questions that feel much bigger than a board game.
0:32.0	They're the obvious things Monopoly teaches you.
0:35.0	How to negotiate, how to manage your cash flow,
0:38.0	how to diversify your assets like owning homes and hotels.
0:43.0	And then they're the implicit things.
0:45.0	The idea that anyone with just a little bit of cash
0:48.0	can rise from rags to riches in this country.
0:50.0	This rags to riches narrative is even part of the game's origin story.
0:55.0	At one point, this story was included in every box of Monopoly.
0:59.0	That a man named Charles Dero was unemployed
1:02.0	and came up with a game to pass the time.
	...

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