Here is an experiment: Take our you Monopoly game; Get 100 people to play. But set it up this way: Give 1 person (player 1 percent) half of all the money, half of all the property (randomly shuffled), half the houses and hotels. Leave half the remaining money and property in the hands of the bank and distribute whats left among the other 99 players. Except the houses. They have to buy the houses from the bank. And make one rule change: On every transaction that brings in money to any player (including passing GO) everyone pays income tax: Player 1 percent pays at a rate of 13%, everyone else pays at a rate of 25%. Here are two alternate ways to play the game: 1. Capitalism: The 99 percent are not allowed to protest or share resources, and should try as hard as possible to compete with each other in an effort to each claw their way to the top. None of the 99 percent are allowed to bargain or otherwise manipulate the game, but the 1 percent player is allowed. 2. (The beginnings of) Socialism: The 99 percent are allowed, in fact encouraged, to work together by pooling their resources and to bargain and manipulate the game amongst each other. The 99 percent are allowed to give charity to each other under the table (without taxation). But none should share resources or bargain with the 1 percent player. My guess is that Alternate #1 will result in player 1 percent winning all of the time. But that in Alternate #2, player 1 percent will only win most of the time. This is a relatively fair representation of what its like to live in the United States today for the middle class. (Forget about the poor, they get nothing.) Enjoy the game.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:59:57 +0000
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