Friday, September 11, 2026

You Are Being Fleeced

Monopoly began in 1904 as Elizabeth Magie's anti-landlord teaching tool with two rulesets. Watch the same dice ruin a tenant under one rule and spare everyone under the other — narrated by Kirk, Spock & Adam.

Source: You Are Being Fleeced

0:05:08 · Download the MP3

Ten things

1. Monopoly began in 1904 as Elizabeth Magie's anti-landlord teaching tool with two rulesets. Watch the same dice ruin a tenant under one rule and spare everyone under the other — narrated by Kirk, Spock & Adam.
2. It was patented in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie — a stenographer, writer, and Georgist — as The Landlord's Game , a tool to teach how landlords grow rich in their sleep.
3. They made him rich, bought Magie's patent for $500 with no royalties, deleted the Prosperity rules, and sold the warning back to us as family fun.
4. The landlord does no extra work — he owns the squares, so money climbs uphill on every unlucky roll, and compounding does the rest.
5. In the 1930s Charles Darrow sold a copy of Magie's game to Parker Brothers as his own.
6. Under Prosperity rules the same rent is collected — but pooled and shared back each round.
7. Monopolist rules reward crushing your opponents until one player owns everything.
8. The only thing that changes between them is a single rule — where the rent goes.
9. It's Henry George's single tax made playable: tax the land, not the work.
10. The left board produces a winner and a casualty; the right one doesn't.

Five questions

1. Which term completes this sourced statement? “Monopoly began in 1904 as _____ Magie's anti-landlord teaching tool with two rulesets. Watch the same dice ruin a tenant under one rule and spare everyone under the other — narrated by Kirk, Spock & Adam.”

   1. Elizabeth
   2. compounding
   3. changes

2. Which term completes this sourced statement? “They made him rich, bought Magie's patent for $500 with no royalties, deleted the _____ rules, and sold the warning back to us as family fun.”

   1. produces
   2. Prosperity
   3. collected

3. Which term completes this sourced statement? “In the 1930s Charles Darrow sold a copy of Magie's game to Parker _____ as his own.”

   1. Brothers
   2. changes
   3. Georgist

4. Which term completes this sourced statement? “_____ rules reward crushing your opponents until one player owns everything.”

   1. Monopolist
   2. produces
   3. compounding

5. Which term completes this sourced statement? “It's Henry _____'s single tax made playable: tax the land, not the work.”

   1. George
   2. Georgist
   3. collected

Answer them in the interactive edition, where each question is read aloud.

The Crisp Polenta Lunch

Base

Polenta + bitter greens

Protein

Rosemary mushrooms or chicken

Finish

Fennel + lemon + walnuts

No added sugar.