This video clip is a short promo for an upcoming video series (see here) It argues that we have a political problem rather than an economic one. As the "banker," I debased the currency, chose economic winners and losers, and basically steered the game. Bianca tried to intervene as government but no one realized they could work with her or use her political power to make the game more fair by reining in my economic power. It makes me admire the early courts and reformers who set up the rules of the game with respect to limited liability and bankruptcy.
There are definitely connections to draw of from this video in regards to our game last night. Especially in the sense that we could physically see some players develop a strong relationship with "the banker", which lead to them becoming more and more powerful, while other players who had less money and property, struggled to stay afloat. It really goes to show how powerless these lower and middle class citizens are in this system.
ReplyDeleteI never thought playing monopoly would so closely resemble our economy. While playing, things got out of control really quick and it was interesting to see the interactions between the players and the banker. It got to the point, where corruption was needed to prosper in the game, it was like playing a game within the game. This video makes a valid point. Out political system might need some adjusting.
ReplyDeleteAbby is right, I was the banker in our game, and I kept taking money for myself, taking other peoples property and money because I could. If I wouldn't of done this, I would have had no money and no property, so she is right in saying that corruption was needed to win. It also opened my eyes to see that money can easily be taken away. The lack of security was really scary, and it really shows how powerless we are, and how powerful the bank system is.
ReplyDeleteIt also showed how systemic risk operates. The banker (me) was too powerful. I changed the rules of the game at will to suit myself. The banker was too big to fail. Bianca was concentrating on fixing quality of life things for you guys such as the cost of education and health care. But those weren't important in the market game, were they?
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I'm super excited about this video series, it should be very enlightening, and probably in a condensed enough format to be publicly accessible.
ReplyDeleteThe connections between the economy and the modified monopoly we played were striking, especially the way that Bianca's adjustments, which were mostly supposed to help the underprivileged often hurt them. I would say that Dr. McKinney acted more like the federal reserve than a normal commercial bank (each game had a banker of its own, she had ultimate control over the money supply and inflation). I know that personally, as the banker I was able to avoid a lot of inflation (once I saw it coming) by switching my large bills that could depreciate into the genuine articles, and in doing so corner the market on specie. This gave me an enormous advantage not too dissimilar from the actual economy.
I have to say, this strikes me as very similar. I reflect upon the fact that I was awarded a substantial loan from "the banker" which helped me bankrupt at least of the players--creating a huge difference in 'class' and 'income'. All done totally 'legally' without these kinds of laws. The video series if properly aimed should/could be effective in spreading awareness.
ReplyDeleteThe resemblance between monopoly and the country's economy is lot more than I thought. As long as the banker was in good terms me I could just afford to do anything I want. The banker helped the richer to get more richer which others player didn't like but could do nothing about it. The government policies were very important to players who were getting poor but it didn't matter to rich who had more than enough to spend.
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