Why The Monopoly Game Is Bad For Your Wealth
The fundamental belief behind Monopoly is lack of money. Since the money supply can’t increase, the players can win only by taking money from other players. The only way to get more money is to take it away from others. This means that Monopoly is a zero sum game based on competition.
This zero sum competitive game reflects the harsh economic realities of the Great Depression. While thousands stood in breadlines, a handful made fortunes. For one to player to win, the others must lose.
The rules of the Monopoly prohibit partnership. You cannot create joint ventures. You can’t loan money to another player. You cannot borrow money from another player.
The psychological effect of playing this highly competitive game is that you are a solo player doing whatever you can to force the other players to go bankrupt. The last thing you want to do is to help someone else stay in the game because that person might go on to drive you out of the game.
As an economic model for creating wealth, Monopoly teaches that competition is the way of the world. It reinforces social models based on competition, and the idea that success is a lonely climb over the heads of others.
This belief is deeply engrained in our shared consciousness about money and success. The game of Monopoly reinforces a common belief that the only way to win is to defeat your competitors.
As a success model, what is the effect of a game based on competition for a limited money supply? You don’t have to look any further than the statistic that 96% of the population will reach 65 without enough money to be financially self-sufficient. Instead of congratulating the 4% who somehow manage to create financial freedom for themselves in this economic system, you need to ask, “What is wrong with the game? Why do so many lose?”
The short answer is that our economic models teach competition for limited resources as the foundation of wealth. The model itself demands that nearly everyone must end the game broke.
What’s the result of following the Monopoly model to create wealth? You might be one of the few who wins. If you do, it will be a lonely struggle in a highly competitive game. It’s more likely that you’ll be one of the losers who could not make enough money to succeed.
This Depression era game is stuck in the mindset and beliefs of a game that doesn’t create money. The winner takes money from others, but does nothing to create more money through transactions.
It’s time for a new game with a new understanding of money. The fact is, you’ll make more money in transactions than you will in takeovers. It’s true that the business world is still full of people who treat business as a zero sum game. But the Great Depression ended more than sixty years ago. Mr. Monopoly had it wrong when he thought that winning meant driving competitors out of business.
It’s possible to see a new vision of money and business when you take off the Monopoly glasses and see money differently. Money isn’t currency. Money is an idea, and the only limits to money are the limits of your vision. In this era, the most enlightened business people understand that you’ll make more money in joint ventures with others than you’ll by competing against them.