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Is The Monopoly Game Teaching You To Go Broke?
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Monopoly is a zero sum game based on competition, based on a limited money supply. Since the money supply cannot increase, the players can win only by taking money from other players.
This fundamental reality of Monopoly is that one player wins while the others lose. This reflects the experience of the Great Depression. Thousands stood in breadlines while a few people became very rich.
Monopoly does not allow players to help each other. The rules forbid partnerships and loans between players.
What is the psychological lesson from such a competitive game? You learn that you are a solo player and you want the other players to fail. You would never want to help another player because that could mean you would lose.
What kind of economic model does Monopoly teach? It teaches that wealth comes to the most competitive. The only way to become wealthy is to take money from 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.
What kind of success model is this 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: Why do so many lose the money game?
The short answer is that many have to lose in order for a few to create wealth. The economic model of competition for limited resources demands that almost everyone must end the game broke for a few to become rich.
Attempting to create wealth according to the Monopoly model is a lonely struggle in a highly competitive game. There is always a winner in Monopoly. You might be the one to win. It is much more likely that you will be one of the majority of those who lose.
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.
Mr. Monopoly had it wrong when he thought that the only way to win was to drive competitors out of business. It’s true that business is full of “black knights” and hostile takeovers from people who still treat business as a game that allows only one winner. But the Great Depression ended more than sixty years ago. 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.
In this era, the most enlightened business people understand that you will make more money in joint ventures with others than you will by competing against them. When you take off the Depression era Mr. Monopoly glasses, you can see a new vision of money and business. Money is not currency. Money is an idea, and the only limits to money are the limits of your vision.
For your new vision of money beyond the zero sum game of Monopoly, be sure to
get the award-winning book, No Money Limits For Real Estate Investors:
Discover The Money-Making Secret In The Real Estate Game That Transforms Your
Money Struggles Into Financial Abundance by Kalinda Rose Stevenson,
Ph.D. at www.NoMoneyLimits.com.
USA Book News Best Books Winner in Business: Real Estate category
and Finalist in Business: Personal Finance category. No Money
Limits For Real Estate Investors is not just for real estate investors, but
for anyone who wants to know how the assumptions of the Monopoly Game keep people
struggling needlessly with money limits.
